With just seven days to go before Christmas, record queues of desperate Kiwis have become a permanent fixture outside the Auckland City Mission. This year, the aid organisation has seen the largest numbers of people seeking help and an alarming number of "first time" clients requesting food parcels and presents for children.
Auckland's City Missioner Dame Diane Robertson said a third of people were making contact with the mission for the first time.
"Last week out of the 1200 or so people who came to us, 450 people had never gone to a food bank before and you can't get a food parcel unless you really can prove that you haven't got any other resources. I think that is quite interesting, I have never had such a high percentage of new clients before during any Christmas," she said.
"Obviously more people are struggling, more people are turning to food banks for the first time and I think it is people who were perhaps just coping last year who aren't coping this year."
Since opening its foodbank on December 7, the mission has distributed 3061 food parcels to families, some of whom queued from 4am until late evening to get their $64 parcel. Last year, over the whole Christmas period, the mission provided 3150 parcels.
