Workers sorting food donations at the Tauranga Foodbank. Photo / Mead Norton
Rising food costs are affecting food providers with one feeding twice as many people with 20 per cent less food and another spending 40 per cent more on food this year.
The crunch comes as annual inflation hit 6.9 per cent in the year to March 31, the largest movement in 30 years. Food prices have also climbed to a 10-year high, rising 7.6 per cent in March.
To help with rising costs, the Government has promised to give eligible low-to-middle income earners a $350 payment in three monthly instalments as part of an emergency $1 billion cost-of-living package.
Tauranga Community Foodbank manager Nicki Goodwin said it had spent 40 per cent more on food this financial year with the increase in food cost and demand.
"Our budget for food is being stretched."
Cheaper items had been occasionally difficult to source meaning the charity paid premium prices to keep the shelves and freezers stocked.
Most of the items it bought had gone up in price, including canned goods, rice, sausages, chicken, cereal, jam, and peanut butter.
The price of bulk canned goods had risen from 80c per can to $1.10 - a "substantial" increase when bought by the pallet load.
The foodbank was looking into a parcel menu redesign as a result.
It provided food to more than 1100 people last month, slightly up on the same time last year. A fifth of people sought help for the first time.
In the past month, there had been an increase in people who had no accommodation - sleeping in cars, on couches, in tents.
Some had nowhere to store food, some had gas cookers, some relied on public barbecues, and some had nowhere to cook if it was raining.
Food rescue service Good Neighbour Trust rescued less food but had seen higher demand.
It rescued 30,884kg of food in April this year compared with 39,112kg in April last year. But it provided food parcels for 43 families in April compared with 20 at the same time last year.
There were 353 requests in April, equating to 6828 meals for 491 adults, 39 teenagers, 215 children, 44 babies, and 98 pets.
The trust provided food from the rescue to 71 charities in the district and there was a waitlist of five new agencies. It also provided Covid Kai, for people self-isolating from Covid.
The drop in donations had been eased by bulk food supply from the New Zealand Food Network, a spokeswoman said.
She said it was believed there was less food coming in through the supermarkets due to logistics, manufacturing and supply disruption.
"With less food on the shelves, that, in turn, means less food coming through Food Rescue to us."
She said it only had the capacity and size to deal with a certain amount each day, and it needed enough food to support everyone.
The trust would be able to bring on more charities as it expanded its operations and space so it could process and store more food.
It currently stored some frozen food off-site.
The team had a dedicated logistics co-ordinator who looked for new food suppliers and sources.
She said sourcing food was a big part of food rescue as well as educating suppliers about the opportunity to rescue food that was not good enough to sell but still good enough to eat.
Under the Stars operations manager Laura Wood said demand for Thursday lunches had increased from an average of 30 people to 46 in May, year-on-year. The Saturday dinners increased from an average of 46 to 79 in that same time.
She had not noticed the cost of food impacting the service, as most of the food came through donations and Good Neighbour.
Feeding Rotorua Charitable Trust trustee Ian Baker said they wouldn't be able to support those in need if food prices and demand continued to rise while donations continued to fall.
"We're finding it harder to find enough food ... there's not much food around."
The trust provided an average of 8000 hot meals and food parcels a month to the many "desperate" people in the community compared with 6000 a year ago.
The food was mostly provided through donations which had decreased in the past year.
Rotorua Salvation Army corps officer Hana Seddon said the foodbank had to absorb costs and "be wise" with purchases as food costs rose.
There had been a "noticeable decline" in food donations but it was connecting with new donors.
Meanwhile, there was a 60 per cent increase in demand for food support last month compared to April with one in 10 people getting help for the first time.
Rotorua Whakaroa's Elmer Peiffer said one to two tonnes less food was donated in the past year which he believed was because of shipping issues and product availability.
An average of about 200 families came to the free store, up from the 120 families two months ago.
Another 160 families were helped at Linton park, Mangakino and Maketu.
"I fear for us, because if the prices continue to rise, there's going to be a lot more families dependent on services like ours, and if we don't have the food supply to cater to those larger numbers, what do we do?"
Bluehaven Groups donated $10,000 to the Tauranga Community Foodbank last month which foodbank manager Nicki Goodwin said was a delightful surprise and would go straight to the food budget.
The Papamoa-based company donated $15,000 towards a new van during the annual Bay of Plenty Times Christmas Appeal in 2020.
Bluehaven executive assistant Andrea Crawford said they wanted to support the "vital work" of the foodbank by helping to feed those struggling.
"As living costs increase, we want to help in any way we can to keep this programme available."
Goodwin said while they haven't noticed donations dropping off yet, she said it was expected in the coming appeals.
She said it was "completely understandable" given the current economic environment.
All donations were welcomed.
Goodwin said grocery vouchers were handy as it meant the foodbank could wait for things to go on special.
Mobile donation drives will be 'making it as easy as possible for people to donate'.