Auckland City Mission Christmas service sees families queue all night for parcels

Thursday, 12 December 2019

Families from across the North Island have been lining up through the night to receive free food and kids' presents.

Hundreds of people, including children, were waiting outside Papakura Marae and Ngā Whare Waatea Marae in south Auckland, VisionWest in Glen Eden and Eden Park in Auckland central. 

Each centre is part of the Auckland City Mission's Christmas service to distribute 200 family care packages per day for eight days.

On the first day each centre reported turning away 50-100 families. They were expecting people would miss out every day.

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At Ngā Whare Waatea Marae, Māori Wardens were on site for most of the night keeping people safe as they queued.

By 10pm, 60 families were camped and at 6.30am several hundred were waiting. Many missed out by the time the gate opened.

Kiarah*, a single mum of two preschool-aged children, said she arrived at VisionWest 10 minutes after the doors opened at 8.30am on Wednesday. She was too late and was told she needed to arrive earlier.

She said it was too hard with two young boys: 'It's not safe to do that kind of thing. I can't sleep outside with my babies.'

Although she missed out, Kiarah said she would try again because a food parcel and money would help her little family.

'It would mean I could relax a little bit knowing there's enough food to feed me and my boys for the week,' she said.

'I can buy my sons a Christmas present and celebrate together after having an extremely tough year.

'I would love to not have the stress of having food even if it's just a week's worth.'

It's the first year VisionWest, a community trust, has partnered with City Mission.

Head of community services development Brook Turner said when he arrived onsite at midnight, there were already 25 families waiting.

He said the first family had driven from Waihi and were outside from 5pm. They'd weighed up their need with petrol costs.

'We were quite astonished by that. It speaks to how far those who are in need are willing to go to get the help they need.'

He said it was a sign of rising inequality, food insecurity, living costs and issues around financial hardship, not just for those on benefits but also people who were working.

'At Christmas that's a pretty rotten thing to be happening to Kiwis.'

Auckland City Mission chief executive Chris Farrelly said it was the second year the Mission had distributed its Christmas service across Auckland.

It allowed people more dignity than in the past, when they were made to queue outside its city centre, he said.

'They were queues of shame. People would queue up all night in that public street, one of the busiest in Auckland, being looked at and judged.'

The first 200 families would be welcomed into each centre. While they waited to be seen by Work and Income, they would receive refreshments, there was entertainment and the kids could play.

Each family received a special needs grant if they qualified for it, could opt in for other social services, and all get large food parcels and gifts for the children, Farrelly said.

The service was capped at 6400 families, he said.