Progress in Programmes

Dee and Magdalina’s Story

The Sallies Kitchen Programme is one of the life skills programmes we run in Christchurch. Dee Price, social worker from Christchurch City Corps, runs the six-week course annually.

Dee is passionate about teaching people to cook tasty, nutritious meals, even on a tight budget and with limited cooking equipment. ‘Some people don’t have much equipment at home, so we teach them how to cook everything in an electric fry pan.  At the end, we gift everyone their own.’ 

Dee recalls a grandfather who did the course. ‘He lived on his own but often had the care of his grandchildren.  He would usually cook them two-minute noodles or baked beans, so he came to the course to learn how to cook. I saw him about a month ago and he was thrilled with the way his grand children had been receiving his meals. He had a huge smile, and the sense of achievement he got from it was awesome.’

Another success story is Magdalina. She says, ‘I’ve been cooking for my family for a long time, but we are on a very tight budget. The course taught me clever ways to shop more affordably, and I definitely learnt to be more creative with canned food.’ 

Extraordinary pressures this year, including the pandemic and increased cost of living, created difficulties in securing safe, secure accommodation. This has left increasing numbers of people needing support. Community Ministries staff provide immediate relief and wraparound support. 

Services we provided and people we helped:

Financial Mentoring:

Financial mentoring support often starts with identifying any debt and helping people prepare and follow a workable budget, but can extend to other financial assistance. This service helped 3495 people directly, along with almost 6000 dependants at 33 locations nationwide. And 89% of those that completed Financial Mentoring feel at least moderately confident managing their money.

Positive Lifestyle Programme

The Positive Lifestyle Programme—an eight-week course designed to enhance participants' self-awareness and give better understanding of personal life skills—assisted 346 participants at 29 centres across the countries.

The Foodbank Project

Operating in Aotearoa New Zealand since 2015, The Foodbank Project is an online donation platform where people can buy food and grocery items that are donated to Salvation Army foodbanks, and then given to Kiwi in need.

During the year, The Salvation Army's network of over 60 foodbanks across the country provided more than 78,000 food parcels or vouchers to individuals, families and partner agencies and centres. During the year, $2,377,000 of food and other items were donated via The Foodbank Project and over 40 foodbanks supplied with weekly deliveries of fresh food and grocery items to sustain their communities. 

Community Ministries centres around Aotearoa New Zealand bring hope and practical support to vulnerable individuals and whānau, with close to 140,000 people receiving welfare support during the year.

To find out more about the Progress in Programmes in 20211-2022, click here.