Pāpāmoa residents are being called on to urgently help with getting a vital community service established.

The meeting, planned for 6.30pm on Monday, October 30, at Golden Sands Baptist Church in Pāpāmoa, is for anyone to come along and hear what is planned and how to help.

Neighbourhood Support co-ordinator Bruce Banks is leading the way to create the new entity to replace Pāpāmoa Family Services, which closed its doors September 19.

Bruce hopes a proposed ‘Pāpāmoa Food Hub' will be able to be established in time to receive the donations from this year's Emergency Services Food Drive scheduled for Tuesday, December 5.

'The new Pāpāmoa Food Hub is proposing to supply food parcels and care packages to those in need as well as providing cooking classes to help our recipients make the best of the food provided,” says Bruce.

'We need the help of our community to establish and operate this crucial service. That's where you could help.”

Pāpāmoa Family Services has been an important community hub that's been providing a wide range of social services for Pāpāmoa residents for 30 years.

Anglican Care Waiapu ran the service out of the Hartford Ave site since 2010. ACW is the social services organisation of the Anglican Diocese of Waiapu.

ACW CEO Lucy Laitinen says the decision to close Pāpāmoa Family Services was a 'really tough” one to make after a review of the service. 'Although we have for some time now deliberately run the service at a significant operating deficit to ensure its continuation, we've now made the decision to close the service and concentrate on other services and programmes in the region.”

Tauranga City Council's community services general manager Barbara Dempsey says the Waiapu Anglican Social Services Trust Board have indicated they will continue to lease the premise at Hartford Ave. 'Our current tenancy agreement with them runs until 30 June 2030,” says Barbara.

'As this land is considered under our Reserves Management Plan, we‘d work with the Board on any future lease at that time. It is noted, that any lease needs to account for the requirements of the Reserves Act, including understanding community needs.”

New Food Hub

Bruce says the new entity, which is unable to operate at the Hartford Ave location needs to be established in time for the Emergency Services Food Drive on December 5.

Last year, more than 250 people hit the streets of Pāpāmoa, with emergency services teaming up with volunteers, including Neighbourhood Support and Fire Emergency NZ services, to collect non-perishable food, toiletries, pet food, cleaning stuff, nappies and hygiene items.

The collection previously went to Pāpāmoa Family Services, which acted as the agent to distribute to the needy. With Pāpāmoa Family Services gone, a new entity needs to be created to fill the gap.

An urgent public meeting is planned to get like-minded residents together and identify what skills and resources are available to get a new vital service under way.

Come along and hear what is planned and how you could help, at 6.30pm on Monday, October 30, at Golden Sands Baptist Church, Cnr Te Okuroa Drive & Stevenson Drive, Pāpāmoa.

Please RSVP your attendance to: nspapamoa@wbopns.org.nz