25 Dec 2009

Christmas appeal continues to grow - city mission

1:57 pm on 25 December 2009

While donations for the Auckland City Mission's Christmas appeal were up this year - it says the need continues to grow.

An estimated 2000 people attended the Mission's annual Christmas lunch at Vector Arena on Friday - with 450 volunteers lending their time to serve and entertain them.

On the menu was 240kg of turkey, 240kg of ham and 300kg of potatoes.

Some people also collected takeaway Christmas meals from the City Mission itself.

Most of the food was prepared at the Devonport naval base over the past few days.

City Missioner Diane Robertson says while people have been very generous with their donations this year - she did worry there might not be enough to go round at one point.

Events elsewhere

In Wellington, the Salvation Army catered for about 100 people at its annual lunch.

In Christchurch, the City Mission said it was expecting about 650 people for its lunch, which consists of donated lamb, ham, vegetables, pavlovas and other sweets.

And in Dunedin, the Church of Christ Community expected about 250 people for its Christmas meal.