PROVINCIAL CAMPAIGN

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30540, 8 September 1964, Page 20

PROVINCIAL CAMPAIGN

Freedom From Hunger

A “penny-a-meal” appeal will be held on the West Coast, and in Canterbury districts outside Christchurch, during the next few weeks as part of the Freedom-from-Hunger Campaign organised by C.O.R S.O. The area organiser (Mr G. H. Coley) said yesterday that the campaign had realised £30.000 less than last years total. It was hoped that the gratitude-box appeal could help to diminish this gap. Last year a similar appeal was held in Christchurch. Boxes were distributed by churches to their members. It had proved most successful. raising £3400, he said. This year’s gratitude-box appeal in other centres and country areas will be conducted’ for the most part in the same way, with the assistance and co-operation of a number of churches and organisations. In the Rangiora area members of Rotary, the Junior Chamber and the Lions’ Club, distributed 12,000 boxes on Saturday. Families taking the boxes are asked to give a penny a person for each meal for a week.

In most areas the appeal is to be held in the last week of September.

This year is the third in the five-year Freedom-from-Hunger Campaign, which was launched by the United Nations. It was important that people should realise that the campaign was not a “handout," Mr Coley said, but an effort to raise the standard of living in Asian and African countries by education and practical assistance. The New Zealand Freedom-from-Hunger Campaign committee had the right to select the projects to which it would contribute. The money went for needed and valuable improvements, he said.