The Hamilton Combined Christian Foodbank is experiencing high levels of demand for food help at a time of year when it would normally be levelling off following the Christmas rush and "back to school" expenses, says Methodist City Action Manager Maxine Campbell.
HCCFB is one of Hamilton's major providers of food parcels and food help. It is supported by Anglican Action, Catholic Family Social Services, Desert Spring Ministries, Methodist City Action, St Vincent de Paul, Te Whanau Putahi and the Pukete Neighbourhood House.
Each organisation provides food parcels through orders to the central foodbank.
Methodist City Action alone experienced a nearly 250 per cent increase in demand for food parcels in 2019, compared to the previous year.
Each parcel includes enough food for three days. Overall the organisations that make up the foodbank provided 3573 food parcels to feed 10,741 people in 2019.