Good in the Hood: Celebrating Our Communities

The orange tokens have been tallied and the results are in!

The voting period for Z Energy’s (Z) Good in the Hood campaign has wrapped up, topping off another successful year of the community initiative. This year, around 500 different community groups were supported through the initiative, which sees $1 million shared with communities across the motu.  

To mark the occasion, Z Retailers are holding a number of local celebrations, providing an opportunity to present the donations to the community groups and showcase their incredible mahi.

Z Retailer Melanie Kennerley, who operates a number of stations across the Auckland region alongside her husband Wayne, was thrilled to take part in the celebrations.

“It’s a real privilege to be able to support and get to know so many of these incredible organisations through Good in the Hood. For me, events like these really are one of the best parts of the job”, she says.

The event at Tōtara Hospice Conference Centre saw over 140 individuals attend from the local community.

Tōtara Hospice also happened to be one the groups who took part in Good in the Hood this year. For them, the campaign not only raises funds to support their work but also helps spread the word about the work they do.

“There are a few misconceptions about hospices” says Janice Stickland, one of Tōtara Hospice’s clinical nurse educators. “Palliative care is all about living well and we work to ensure our patients and their whānau can focus on making the most of what time they have left together. We focus on quality of life.”

Another misconception is that the organisation is limited to medical care within the walls of its facility. Almost 80% of the care provided by Tōtara Hospice to patients is in their own homes, with access to a full multi-disciplinary team of hospice healthcare professionals.

“There are a lot of challenges that come at the end of a person’s life, and we’re here to try and make that journey as easy as possible,” says Dr Mike Morrison, a medical officer at Tōtara Hospice.  “All of our services are provided free of charge, however, we are only partially funded by the government, the rest of our funds come from donations. Campaigns like Good in the Hood help us enormously.”

In addition to Tōtara Hospice, a variety of other organisations who support their communities have also benefited from Good in the Hood. This includes groups like Mana Inc, who deliver wānanga (workshops) focused on whanaungatanga (connectedness) to support and uplift others; Amberley Meals on Wheels, who provide meals to the elderly and unwell three days a week; and the Picton Volunteer Fire Brigade, who help keep their community safe and support in emergencies.

Since Good in the Hood was first launched over a decade ago, it has donated over $10 million to groups working to make a positive change in the communities they serve.