JANELLE KIRKLAND
``In a couple of years we will be lucky to give a tin of baked beans to a family.'
Those are the sombre words of Napier Salvation Army team leader of community ministries, Chris Morgan, who says the highest demand for food parcels the team has ever seen is a definite sign of recession - and not about to abate soon.
The Napier branch of the nationwide operation saw demand for food parcels rise from 20 families in the last quarter of 2007 to 106 at the corresponding time last year.
Nationwide, there was a 38 per cent jump in the number of families seeking food aid during that time.
``I would say we have given away more food parcels in the last 12 months than ever, since 2002 when we started doing this,' Mr Morgan said.
Recession was biting families hard and it was only going to get worse, he said.
``If it's not affecting them already, in six months' time a lot of our people are going to be broken.
``A number of people I see are borderline anyway and $20 or $30 makes all the difference between kids having school lunches or not, bread and milk or not. That's how tight they are.
``You imagine somebody who is on a fixed income, you can't make more than $300 or $400 a week and you can't go out and get a part-time job because you've got children around your feet.
``A number of families we work with don't have babies, they have older children who take a whole lot more to run. They need milk, they need cheese and meat and we don't know where that is going to come from.
``Everything is slowly drying up. If it keeps going the way it is going, in a couple of years we will be lucky to give a tin of baked beans to a family.'
Many of these families had already ``maxed out' their credit with the Ministry of Social Development and taken their allotment from Winz.
``The only place they can come to is us, and we are sort of limited in what we can do.'
The team distribute food in ``emergency situations', on referral from Winz or other agencies. It did not run a food bank, Mr Morgan said.
However, the service was also a victim of recession as businesses and benefactors faced higher costs to donate. ``We have to rely on the goodwill of people and the recession is going to cut that back because what company is going to drive a half-full truck from Auckland for us?
``Those are the sorts of things that have a spill-over effect for us to even be able to help people.'
LEAD STORY: More need flood relief
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.