Social media posts by food rescue charity KiwiHarvest and the Happiness House community support centre were all it took to start the fruity free-for-all.
KiwiHarvest's Queenstown food co-ordinator, Lucy Deuble, said a local supermarket gave 240kg of bananas "not good enough to sell, but still good for humans to eat".
After distributing 40kg to other charitable organisations in the resort, she left the rest outside Happiness House in Park St.
The giveaway was prompted by the sudden supply of bananas, meaning it had more than was needed by its usual outlets, she said.
The supermarket gave her 70kg of the fruit the day before, while earlier this week, 460kg of bananas left over from the Queenstown International Marathon were given to Esther Whitehead, founder of KiwiHarvest's partner organisation, Sustainable Queenstown.
Those bananas were distributed to schools, the hospital and child-focused businesses, Ms Deuble said.
"It was a very irregular surplus, and they went to those in need."
