Neighbourhood houses, including Duke Street Community House are crying out for more state government funding to keep their food relief programs running.
Duke Street Community House provides a weekly food relief service at Central West Shopping Centre, Braybrook, where it feeds on average 300-400 people a week.
Duke Street Community House manager Emma Price said demand was consistently growing, with 165 new people seeking food relief since January.
“People are getting more and more desperate. We see hundreds of people, and each person’s story is more tough than the last,” she said.
“Demand far exceeds our limited capacity. We are a tiny organisation pulling the weight of much bigger (and funded) players.”
Last year, neighbourhood houses received $2.5 million in food relief funding in the state budget, with Duke Street receiving $40,000.
The food relief program costs Duke Street about $55,000 annually to run.
NHVic chief executive Keir Paterson said the rapidly growing community demand for food relief and material relief has placed an unsustainable cost burden on neighbourhood houses.
“We’re calling on the state government this May to commit for $2.7 million in the first year, or $10.8 million over four years to fund food relief services in neighbourhood houses – and that only covers around half the total cost,” he said.
A spokesperson said the state government would be focused on making sure “every dollar of investment goes to where it matters most” when it hands down the budget.
