Christmas with dignity for those in need
The Wellington City Mission has moved away from the traditional lunches hosted on Christmas Day and instead has provided people with the means to host their own.
“It gives people the dignity of doing their own stuff and gives our staff the opportunity to have some time off,” City Missioner Murray Edridge said.
Part of the move was influenced by the Covid-19 pandemic, but another motive was to give people the ability to host Christmas like many others do. It didn’t take away from the existing community Christmas lunches but it was a move that felt important to the mission, Edridge said.
This year had been “one of the toughest years” he had seen – exacerbated by the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and tragedies such as the Loafers Lodge fire.
It put pressure on the mission, supporting survivors who lost all their belongings, as well as families of the five victims killed in the fire, and the grief experienced by the community it was closely connected with.
But it had been met with an equal measure of generosity from the community.
The mission sent out 875 boxes to businesses and organisations to fill with food and toy donations which was “way more than we’ve had before”, Edridge said.
It had opened a pop-up toy store in Newtown where parents could choose presents for their children for free.
“It comes from them and not from us which is a nicer way to do it,” Edridge said.
“Christmas for a lot of people is quite sparse. If you’re doing life tough, Christmas just adds to the stress, it doesn’t relieve it.”
The mission distributed to 66 other community agencies to provide gifts and food for them to be able to put out to the community.
Other Christmas community events:
– A Christmas lunch is being held by Room at the Inn at Aro Valley Community Hall (48 Aro St) on Christmas Day between noon and 1.30pm. No registration is required. – Stillwaters Christmas Breakfast at Wellington Central Baptist Church (46-48 Boulcott St) at 8am.
– Ekta will be distributing groceries from St Peter’s Church Undercroft between 10am-2pm tomorrow and December 30 and prepacked grocery bags from the Salvation Army in Newtown (223 Riddiford St) between 10am-11am on December 27 and January 3. – Ekta will host a Christmas meal on Manners St (next to the Opera House) between 4.30pm-5.30pm tomorrow, a New Year’s meal at the same site between 4.30pm-5.30pm on December 30, New Year’s lunch at St Peter’s Church Garden from 12pm-2pm on January 1 and New Year’s Kai at St Peter’s Church from 10.30am on January 5.