Demand grows from needy for food

DONNA PAGET/Waikato Times

TOUGHER TIMES: Eleni Tapueluelu, left, and Aliesha Linch load food parcels into a trolley at Hamilton Combined Christian Foodbank yesterday.

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Demand for charity food parcels is increasing with several Waikato foodbanks sending out twice their usual amount to needy families.

And staff at the foodbanks say the demand is now coming from struggling middle income earning New Zealanders, as well as beneficiaries and low income earners.

Hamilton Combined Christian Foodbank manager Aleisha Linch said there were 191 food parcels given out in August, 43 more than the same month last year. The increase was even higher in July with 206 parcels distributed, up from 146 in the same month last year.

Mrs Linch said there was "definitely a huge increase" in the number of people seeking assistance, and she believed tough economic conditions and rising petrol, food and service costs were to blame.

"Everything everyone needs, day-to-day, has gone up."

Mrs Linch said although the majority of food parcel recipients were beneficiaries, the number of workers asking for help had risen as well. She urged families needing help to go to Winz, to be referred on. "(But) sometimes people come in, and they're just desperate right then and there."

Roseanne Piaggi, Thames Baptist Communities Ministries administrator, said demand for food parcels from the Thames Interchurch Foodbank had also risen, up from between 35 and 40 parcels a month in 2007 to 50 a month this year.

"It's not a surprise given the economic climate of the country at the moment," said Miss Piaggi.

She said some families' need for food parcels was related to an inability to manage their money, but others found themselves in "difficult positions", sometimes due to being forced on to ACC as a result of injury.

Margaret Johnston, co-ordinator of the Putaruru foodbank at the Overdale Community Centre, agreed and said there had "definitely" been an increase in the need for food parcels. Some months the number of parcels given out had tripled.

Middle class families who'd had "some strife" were among those seeking food parcels, and some were embarrassed to have to ask for help, she said.

Maree Harworth, of Raglan's Surfside Community Services, said high rents and the cost of petrol were major factors in the rising need for foodbank parcels. Four extra families a week twice as many as usual were seeking assistance.