Food Hubs can only meet around 60% of their communities’ needs. Photo / 123RF
Food Hubs can only meet around 60% of their communities’ needs. Photo / 123RF
Foodbanks are finding it harder to support their communities, according to a new report.
The New Zealand Food Network’s Food Security Snapshot, canvassing the experiences of 60 nationwide recipient Food Hubs from January to June this year, has revealed a 30% decrease in the number of people recipient Food Hubs can support, compared to the previous survey, as socioeconomic challenges continue to bite.
The New Zealand Food Network is a not-for-profit organisation, launched in July 2020, with funding from the Ministry of Social Development, to address the growing issue of food insecurity in Aotearoa.
With distribution centres in Auckland and Christchurch, it acts as New Zealand’s national food rescue facilitator.
The organisation collects quality bulk surplus and donated food from producers, growers and manufacturers.
It then redistributes it to more than 60 food hubs (food rescue organisations, iwi, foodbanks and charities) across the country, so that they may feed the communities they serve.
The New Zealand Food Network connects food surplus to food demand — efficiently and safely capturing and redistributing surplus and donated food nationally.
The Security Snapshot shows economic headwinds and a fiscally challenging charity environment have meant Food Hubs are still struggling to meet the current level of demand.
On average, they are only able to service approximately 60% of their communities’ needs.
New Zealand Food Network’s chief executive, Gavin Findlay, said “While it’s still an admirable feat that these community organisations are able to service hundreds of thousands of Kiwis facing food insecurity, the reality is that the demand is still high.
New Zealand Food Network chief executive, Gavin Findlay.
“Each year, the food support sector is experiencing more and more funding challenges which limits the ability to deliver the services that our most vulnerable communities rely on.
“That’s why we continue to work alongside the government to act and uplift the sector, striving to create more food-secure communities.”
Tania Varnham, operations manager at Waikato-based Huntly Food Rescue Remedy (Huntly Community Advice Trust and Social Services) said, “We struggle to provide meat, fruit, and veggies; we are now having to fundraise, increasing our volunteer’s workload even more.
“We have had to decline repeat recipients.”
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Rae Semmens, team lead at The Salvation Army Palmerston North Community Ministries reiterated this.
“Due to increased demand, we’ve had to buy more kai,” she said.
“Consequently, we’ve had to gently reduce the frequency of visits and the amount of food whānau can receive.”
While they receive 45% of their food via the New Zealand Food Network, all the rest has to be sourced by themselves with fundraising or donations.
”While demand for food packages eased off after Covid, the last six months has seen a rise in the demand for food parcels due to the cost of living, higher power bills, increased rent and the sad reality is that they are seeing a lot of pensioners needing help,” Semmens said.
Pensioners who have lost their spouses end up on a reduced benefit but still have the same costs to pay for rates, insurance, rent and power, just less money.
For some, there is nothing left for food, and going along to food hubs is their only option.
The other noticeable change is that parents looking after ill children now have to take unpaid sick leave to look after them, meaning there is no money coming in for food, so a local food hub is an option they are turning to.
With bread, milk and meat being the items that are asked for most frequently, the Salvation Army has produced a cookbook called “Cooking on a Budget”.
This became possible by the generosity of a donor who funded 1000 copies of these books and also Fonterra has kindly supplied recipes showing the versatility of milk powder.
A real success has been their “Kai Plan” where they sit down with members of their community for a month and teach them the basics of living within your means when it comes to food and how to plan their meals better and more economically.
Next on their agenda is encouraging their community to grow vegetables or shared food hubs so more food can be grown and shared among whanau and friends.
The survey found that a third of the Food Hubs’ monthly recipients sought help for the first time — signalling the ongoing changing face of food insecurity.
The heightened cost of living continues to be the primary driver for food support, with 90% of Food Hubs citing it as the top reason recipients seek assistance.
Of the other reasons recipients were seeking support, a jump in those citing unexpected bills (66%, up from 58%) and unemployment (65%, up from 46%) also shows how the tough economic landscape is having a tangible impact as many face higher expenses and job cuts.
