Day 431 - Autumn Harvest

St Mary's Church had a fair at midday today and Addington Action joined in with a display. Always a great way to meet people. Chantelle and Mike crewed.

Day 430 - big clean up

Stu, Connor, Chantelle and Mike cleared a quake damaged rear section of rubbish and took it to the tip. Sydenham Salvation Army paid the tip fees. This work on this place is now finished till next September.

Day 428 - Canterbury Rivers

There was an excellent all day seminar today on the state of Canterbury rivers and how they were affected by the quakes and resulting raw sewerage from broken pipes.

It was held at the Lincoln Event Centre.

Many of the reports presented can be downloaded.

Day 427 - Addington Action GST registered

Addington Action is now GST registered from April 1 2012 with 6 monthly filing of returns required. The GST number is 108-429-437

Addington Action will be closed tomorrow for ANZAC day public holiday.

Day 426 - sorting final details for the fruit and veggie co-op

Today was spent opening trade account with two companies for the use and return of crates for the Christchurch South Fruit and Veggie Co-op.

The fruit and veggies will arrive in crates, and the crates are charged for. After unpacking, the empty crates need to be returned for a credit.

The yellow and re crates go back to CHEP on Halswell Junction Rd. Then the dispatch office issues a docket. The credit is automatic.

The red crates go back to FCC on Dakota Pl. The credit is automatic.

Safety boots and High Viz jackets must be worn when dropping off the crates.

Day 424 - Spreydon Heathcote Ward repairs

Addington Action works in the Spreydon - Heathcote Ward of Christchurch to clear damaged sections of rubble and repair uninsured homes. It does not work in other areas of Christchurch. This is for several reasons.

• Keeps traveling times down to a minimum so more real work gets done.
• Partially a matter of where the donations for repairs have come from.
• It is where Addington Action is based and where most of our volunteers live.

People who have a damaged uninsured home outside this area should contact Habitat For Humanity who are repairing uninsured homes in the rest of Christchurch.

The person to contact is

Paul Galbraith, Project Manager of Habitat for Humanity - Christchurch Rebuild Project.

Phone 03-382-055
Mobile 027-434-3698

Day 423 - Addington Action needs to be GST registered

Addington Action recently reached the threshold for GST registration because of the unexpected volume of donations.

Expecting annual income to be around $100K from donations and annual expenditure of $100K on building materials, fuel, rent, work tools, etc. So should get about $15K of GST back as a refund.

We have applied for GST registration from IRD with the start date being April 1 2012 to make it easier for the financial annual returns.

Day 420 - Addington Action closed for 3 days

The Addington Action office closed this morning for 3 days, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

The office is open 7 days a week except for 3 days per month for a holiday.

The office will reopen on Saturday at 8am.

Messages can be left on the phone or by text or by email.

Day 419 - Nicky Wagner was disgraceful

Tonight at the fortnightly meeting of CanCERN, representatives of dozens of residents groups showed up to put questions to local MP's and hear their response.

Nicky Wagner is a local National Party MP. She was asked lots of great questions about housing, the elderly, land, insurance etc. A great deal of factual information was put forward by meeting attendees.

Her replies can only be described as whitewashing. She was quite ballsy justifying everything the current government had done or not done in response to the quakes and invited anyone to meet her so her office could "help them".

It was firmly pointed out that plenty of factual information was being provided to government (for example over the growing housing crisis) and the usual response from Brownlee is "what problem" , "let the market decide".

It was pretty obvious to meeting attendees that trying to convince the government to act more intelligently about the quakes on the basis of facts being put forward is a total waste of time.

The only thing this lot understands is a bit of the cold steel as Corporal Jones used to say.

Day 419 - another house finished

Today, the Henderson's Rd job was completed.

Then a visit out to 0800 Hungry to discuss with Kerry work underway on upgrading their computer system.

Then bringing back this weeks orders of food parcels for distribution in Addington.

Then, picked up the graphic design material from Craig Dixon at Christchurch Cathedral Parish Office to support the South Christchurch Fruit and Veggie Co-op (CSFVC).

The co-op kicks off Wednesday May 2. Early, next week, the posters and forms will be distributed to the 5 community distribution points so they can get set up and start advertising locally.

Tonight, there is a meeting of CanCERN with some local MP's present. Got lots of good questions to ask them. Hope there are some good answers.

Day 418 - admin support office to open

Today Lynette cleaned up the new office out at Rowley Resource Centre. The office will be used by Addington Action volunteers to provide backroom administrative support.

• Paying the accounts
• Filing records
• Keeping the history archive
• Thank-you letters
• Sending out receipts

Mike's spare bedroom will be the project office.

• Calls from the public
• Fundraising
• Job dispatch
• Training volunteers

The office at Rowley will open next week.

Day 416 - fundraising BBQ 2 at Canterbury Crusaders

Addington Action ran another fundraising BBQ outside the Canterbury Crusaders new home grounds earlier tonight for the veggie garden projects.

Brendon, Trudy, Amanda, Lynette, John and Mike cooked and sold 140 sausages for $2 each to the good cheerful crowd from 5pm till 7.15pm. The crowd attending seemed to be smaller than the previous match.

The setup used a trailer mounted double BBQ borrowed from Blue Light Trust. Addington Action's new information display gazebo looked really nice.

The only disappointment was a visit by two managers from VBase who tried bullying tactics demanding to know if we had permission and where was our food permit. They were politely but firmly told that fundraising BBQ's by community groups don't require food permits in NZ, and that we weren't selling on VBase land so it was none of their business. We had been given site permission.

The fund raising BBQ's will be repeated at other events on a regular basis.

Day 416 - painted window

Today the crew was Chantelle, Mel and Mike.

At a house in Hutcheson St, we washed down wood trim then put 2 coats of paint on.

Also loaded up and delivered a big trailer load of old demo timber from Walton St to Strickland St for the residents to chop up for firewood.

Next jobs

• Monday - Hutcheson St - get curtain rail and thermal curtains from the Curtain Bank and put them up. Lay carpet.
• Tuesday - Hendersons Rd - mount bathroom cabinet. Miner touch up painting. Then that house is finished.
• Saturday - Parlane St - move temporary security fencing back to where it was borrowed. Then that house is finished.
• Saturday - Walton St - Take 3 trainer loads of rubbish to tip. Mow lawn. Then that house is finished.

Day 415 - Another house finished off

Today, work by Addington Action on another uninsured house was finished. It's on Parlane St. The extended family of the elderly resident have now taken responsibility for everything to be done.

Excellent!

Day 415 - Window trim fixed

A repaired window got its new trim today plus a fair bit of no more gaps.

Tomorrow, the whole window will be washed down with sugar soap then get 2 coats of top coat paint.

Working to get as many houses finished as soon as possible before starting any more. So a queue is growing.

Day 412 - Community Board donates $8000

The Spreydon - Heathcote Community Board recently approved a discretionary fund grant of $8,000 to Addington Action for earthquake recovery work.

This grant is made up of $7,000 to cover the 2012 costs of running a work vehicle and $1,000 for information like street posters.

Day 410 - LUSH donates $3000

LUSH have donated $3,000 to Addington Action. The money was raised by their sale of pots of hand and body lotion called a "Charity Pot".

The money will be used to cover the initial start up costs of equipment and raw materials needed to support the weekly distribution of food to up to 400 hungry families in Christchurch South affected by the social impacts of the quakes on working people.

These effects come on top of very low wages, overcrowding, crippling rents, damaged houses with high winter heating bills and problems with WINZ.

Food programme

• Christchurch South Fruit and Veggie Co-op supply of 400 $10 packs per week (Christchurch Cathedral, DHB Community Health, Addington Action, Manuka Cottage, Opawa Baptist Church, Phillipstown Community Centre, Rowley Resource Centre, Sydenham Community Centre)
• Establishment of 100 home veggie garden by end of 2012 with the help of Christchurch South Community Gardens
• Distribution of 15 emergency food parcels per week supplied by 0800 Hungry

Day 409 - Donation for safety gear

$2000 has been donated by Fonterra to Addington Action for safety gear. The funding has been provided from the Rebuilding Communities Programme.

The money will be used to buy safety vests, traffic cones, work boots etc for the regular volunteers.

Day 408 - Bathroom painted

A home in Hendersons Rd, Hoon Hay now has a freshly painted bathroom. Two top coats went on earlier today.

There is a couple of hours work left to do on this place. Still to do is remounting a bathroom cabinet and some No More Gaps.

The plan over the next 4 weeks is to finish off every repair job that's currently underway before starting any new jobs. So that about 10 places to complete.

The long term plan is to be able to start and finish one house at a time. This will create a single queue and people will know where they are.

Day 407 - Oceania resthome workers continue fight for a living wage

Photos from the picket this morning of rest home workers organised by SFWU and NZNO picket Villa Gardens at 207 Lincoln Rd Addington. No one can live on the minimum wage, especially in quake ravaged Christchurch.

Day 407 - Donation to clear section

The Salvation Army from Sydenham have donated $300 to Addington Action to pay for the costs of tip fees for dumping residual rubbish from a section in Walton St Sydenham.

The home belongs to a woman whose quake damaged home is being repaired by Addington Action.

Anything that can be recycled has been in order to reduce costs. The scrap metal, garden waste and timber all found homes.

Day 406 - Christchurch South Fruit & Veggie Co-op established

This morning, representatives from a range of groups in Christchurch South met to establish the Christchurch South Fruit & Veggie Co-op or CSFVC.

The Co-op is a clone of the one that has run out of St Aidens Church in Bryndwr for many years and supported by Christchurch Cathedral.

How it Works
A packing operation will pack prepaid fruit and veggie packs every Wednesday morning for pickup by local community centres who will then distribute to residents who have ordered and paid for the packs the week before.

The first shipment will be on Wednesday May 2 2012. Any group in Christchurch South wishing to join as a distributor should contact Addington Action.

Co-ordinating Committee
2x Addington Action (transport, payments)
1 x Manuka Cottage
1 x Opawa Baptist Church
1 x Phillipstown Community Centre
1 x Rowley Resource Centre
1 x Sydenham Community Centre

Roles
Christchurch Cathedral

• Legal paperwork, graphics, buying

DHB - Community Health

• Recipes, cooking demonstrations

Addington Action

• Orders, payments, publicity, forms, training, crate return, continuity, equipment, transport

Community Centre

• Orders and distribution, local publicity, packers, pickup, committee rep

Resident

• $10 pre-order, Wednesday pickup

Rules

• 1 rep on co-ordinating committee from each group
• 1 packer per 25 orders to be provided by each group
• Initial quota maximum 50 orders per group
• No refunds

Weekly Deadlines
Wednesday 9am – Crates of fruit and veggies arrives by truck
Wednesday 10.30am – Fruit and veggie packs ready to pick up
Wednesday 12noon – All fruit and veggie packs picked up
Wednesday 4pm – All crates returned
Friday 9am – Direct debit payment to supplier for previous week
Friday 4pm – Order sent and money deposited into Addington Action A/C
Monday 1pm – Orders to Christchurch Cathedral
Tuesday 7am – Buy fruit and veggies

Day 404 - new building trainer

Desmond "Des" Preston has joined the Addington Action Committee. Des works as a builder and will help train the workers on the repair crew.

For the last half year, Des has been helping with running the food parcel distribution system in Addington - Sydenham - Hillmorton. He will now join the food parcel subcommittee of Florence, Dawne and Dianne that organises and leads the volunteers who distribute the parcels each week.