The Citrus for Christchurch campaign will soon be collecting any excess citrus from Northlanders to send to the South Island. Organised by Lions Clubs of Whangarei, the citrus drive - now in its third year - will collect spare citrus, including lemons, limes, oranges, mandarins and grapefruit, at Forum North on July 30 from 8am-3pm.
Organiser Terry Ward said Whangarei firm Rent a Cheepy had donated trucks to help transport the fruit and Mainfreight would get the citrus to Canterbury free of charge - all he needed now was for the public to bring their fruit forward.
"Last year we got 230 banana boxes, or about four tonnes, of fruit to send down there. It was an amazing response and we hope to get a similar amount this year," Mr Ward said.
He said the fruit was gratefully received by the Canterbury community. The citrus will be distributed through foodtogether, a collective of groups and organisations who weekly work to supply fresh affordable produce to about 3000 families. Most of the work is done by about 300 volunteers.
Mr Ward said citrus does not grow well in Canterbury and it was nice to know that unwanted fruit from the north would benefit Canterbury.
"It's been a really good citrus season so there will be lots of spare fruit out there and we'd love to get any unwanted citrus to send south. And they just really appreciate it so much down there."
People can email Mr Ward at [email protected] with offers.
Source: Northern Advocate/nzherald.co.nz
