In the spirit of giving back this holiday season, Curate Church is gearing up for the ninth year of its impactful annual initiative, the ‘Gift of Groceries’, and asks the community to help.

In partnership with Pak’n Save Pāpāmoa and New World Mount Maunganui, Curate Church’s heartfelt project on December 4-6 aims to assemble and distribute 2000 boxes of essential groceries to Tauranga families experiencing hardship, via local organisations.

“We are working in collaboration with over 50 local organisations, including Oranga Tamariki, NZ Police, Plunket, Tauranga Hospital and Waipuna Hospice, to ensure they get to those in most need,” says Curate’s Elle Crawford.

“Hire It, Synergy Technologies, Endless Fencing and Kingdom Hire are our four key sponsors and we are also approaching more local businesses for sponsorship.

“Due to food price increases, our boxes will now cost $50 each – up from $40 each for the last few years.”

Elle says community support for the packing days is amazing.

“Over 200 volunteers are joining us in this kaupapa, both from the Curate community and local businesses who do their ‘staff volunteer day’ with us.”

Local businesses are chipping in with supplying free truck, trailer and forklift hire, and 3km of packing tape.

To sponsor and for more information, go to https://curatechurch.com/giftofgroceries