By Cade Lucas
A combination of Christmas and the cost of living crisis has made Foodbank’s Yarraville warehouse one of the busiest places in the western suburbs this December.
It’s not an unusual situation for the food relief charity, with the dual impact of inflation and interest rate rises making the last few Christmases particularly busy and difficult.
And while inflation has slowly come down, Foodbank Victoria chief executive Dave McNamara said that had yet to be reflected in living costs, with the charity set to help even more people this Christmas.
“This time last year we were feeding 57,000 people a day, this year, it is 69,000 Victorians every day,” said Mr McNamara, who worries the cost of living crisis could be the new norm.
“Unfortunately, if history plays any role in determining the future, the last few years have shown there’s an exponential need for food support for families and individuals, rather than a dropping of demand,” he said.
“Our concern at the moment is this is becoming more of a systemic issue.”
Mr McNamara called on governments to do more to address the underlying issues behind the ongoing crisis and to ensure charities like his weren’t so busy.
“The role of government and other authorities is to understand the levers such as poverty and cost of living and other contributors so they can put structural solutions into place to make sure that no Victorian should ever need food relief from an organisation like Foodbank.”
For the time being though, thousands of Victorians are relying on Foodbank this Christmas and Mr McNamara said the warehouse was constantly buzzing as staff and volunteers set about feeding them.
“Christmas Day is the one day of the year that you really do want food on the table,” he said.
“We try to add some special Christmas treats into our offerings like Christmas cake, ham, custard etc. We also run a couple of extra twilight markets that allows working families in particular, to access food relief when they may not be able to at other times.”
Details: foodbankvictoria.org.au
