Since our last newsletter, we have:

• Been given about $4,000 worth of pasta from Elim Junior Campus.
• Assisted the Anglican Food Bank in Manurewa in stocking their shelves with food we have previously received from Bayfield School, New World and Elim Junior Campus.
•  Given large quantities of food to the Social Worker in Schools at two other Manurewa Schools.
• Fed 100 children dinner at two nights during the school holidays with food donated by New World and friends.

I thought life was at last slowing down, as since our last newsletter, everything was almost normal, with about 4 food parcels going out each week and 40 children a day at Breakfast Club … then last week:

On Monday, last week, a family had a 6 month old child that had been fed an apple, was choking. The only thing they knew to do was to run to “Nana Kay’s” (who has the car that was donated to Breakfast Club by Trevor) … to rush them to hospital. Five minutes later this child had stopped breathing … and at the same time an ambulance was coming down Alfriston Road. Nana Kay waved down the ambulance and the team got to work on the child dislodging the apple stuck in her throat.

The ambulance team said that the child would not have survived the trip to the hospital.

Thank God for Nana Kay’s car and attitude.

On Tuesday afternoon, two children ran into Nana Kay’s house to tell her their house was on fire. This house eventually burnt down destroying every item of furniture and clothing that the family of 6 owned.

The father of the family asked to speak with myself and pleaded for our help for his family.

We arranged for Nana Kay to have the children sleep at her house, and to provide meals for all of the family.

Within 24 hours, the following was either delivered or offered:

• 20 Dinner meals
• $50 worth of meat
• $500 cash from a business in Botany
• $30 cash
• Two uniforms for Randwick Park
• One uniform for Alfriston College
• A large quantity of good quality clothing for all of the children.
• Lounge suites, dining suites, bunks, king single beds, queen size beds
• Bedding for the whole family
• Pots and pan set
• Cutlery
• Full set of brand new bath towels

This shows how great a team we have with Felicity and Dot from Randwick Park School.

We are so grateful for our ‘Facebook’ friends and the people of both St Columba and Randwick Park area who have enabled this family to almost be back to where they were before the fire.

Wednesday we had a call from the NZ Herald, wanting to do a pre-budget interview on the Food Bank and Breakfast Club we were providing. Here is the article

As a result of this article being published:

Hubbards Foods asked to meet with Brenda and I, and at that meeting offered to partner with us in supplying cereal to:

• Breakfast Club
• Food Bank
• The Anglican Foodbank that we are helping
• Supplying Breakfasts and Nutritional advise to our Sports Academy
• Consider entering a team in our Head2Head walk in October.

Just when we thought it was over… on Friday Randwick Park School received a phone call from a winner of a Hubbard Foods promotion where she had won an iPad and a year’s supply of cereal… and she wanted to donate it all to the school. This lady has no idea that Hubbards Food had the day before come on board as a partner.

The Sports Academy

The 30 children have been selected for the Academy, and there were tears from the children that missed out. Next week their ‘Screen Printed Hoodies’ arrive.

St Kentigern College First XV coaching staff have been brilliant. They have just come back from winning the ‘World Secondary School’ Championships … and still they find time to coach our children.

Our posters our now up on the wall. Here is another one sponsored by Rotary Epsom.