Auckland City Mission needs more than a tonne of food for Christmas lunch

Friday, 22 December 2017

About 400 volunteers will be dishing out Christmas lunch at Viaduct Events Centre.

Auckland City Mission is wrangling more than a tonne of meat and vegetables for its annual Christmas lunch.

Thousands of people in need will pack out the Viaduct Events Centre on Christmas Day.

Up to 400 people have been lining up outside the Auckland City Mission for food parcels each day.

The City Mission's fundraising manager, Alexis Sawyers, said 400 volunteers would be there to dish out the food.

'We get 2000 guests come and share Christmas lunch with us, and that's as many as we can host in the venue for the type of event we hold,' she said.

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'But we also do 500 take-out bags in case more than 2000 people turn up.'

The lunch would require 2000 chicken drumsticks (about 230kg of chicken all up), 300kg of ham, 300kg of gourmet potatos and 240kg of kumara.

'And even though kumara is expensive, we're very lucky that we've got a very kind kumara grower who donates it to us.'

On each table there would also be a simple salad of lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber.

For dessert: Ice cream, fruit and jelly and Christmas cake.

And everyone at the event gets a present, adults included.

The guests will include rough sleepers and people staying at the City Mission's drug and alcohol centre, as well as at James Liston emergency accommodation.

'Everyone is really happy to be there, whether they're a volunteer or a guest,' said Sawyers.

'The entertainment is a real mix of Christmas carols, community choirs - having that at the start gets everyone feeling even more Christmas-y.

'And then you see some of our rough sleepers will sit with families - there's just a real mix of people, and every guest there is happy.'

The doors at the Viaduct Events Centre open at 11.30am, and lunch is served at 12.30pm.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern visited the City Mission and made an appeal for donations.

This week needy Aucklanders have been camping overnight on Hobson Street to ensure they receive a Christmas food parcel.