Food relief for vulnerable Australians

Thank you for supporting Foodbank Australia. We could not continue to feed Australians in need every day without your support!

The Foodbank Hunger Report 2022 was released earlier this month. Now in it’s 11^th year, the Foodbank Hunger Report provides the most up to date data and observations on household hunger in Australia – where it’s happening, why it’s happening and who it’s happening to.

The report paints a confronting picture of the hunger crisis facing our country. On any given day, over half a million households in Australia are struggling to meet their food needs. They may be compromising on the quality and variety of their food, eating less often or even going entire days without eating. More than 2 million households in Australia (21%) went hungry in the last 12 months, which means they actually ran out of food because of financial limitations. Heartbreakingly, 1.3 million children lived in severely food insecure households in the last year. In addition to this, households with children are 1.5 times more likely to be struggling to put food on the table, with single parent households being the hardest hit of all.

We have found that it is getting more difficult for Australians to afford adequate and nutritious food this year compared to last, and the rising cost of living is the most common reason why. Unpacking this, the cost of food and groceries is the top cause, followed closely by energy costs, housing costs and natural disasters. There are people being affected in every neighbourhood, city and country alike, and over half of food insecure households had someone in paid work. In fact, nearly a third of households with mortgages have experienced food insecurity in the last year, which shows that it's not just people on the street who are going hungry, but people in our street.

Foodbank continues to provide food relief to over 1 million Australians a month and will continue to do so for as long as people need help. Unfortunately, shame and embarrassment is the single biggest reason stopping people from reaching out for help, so we still have plenty more to do. To view the interactive report, visit the link below.

Thank you once again for helping Foodbank to support Austrailan households doing it tough.

Links:

• Foodbank Hunger Report 2022

Thank you for supporting Foodbank. Your donations of $14,146 have enabled us to provide 28,292 meals to those in need across Australia.  

As we know, COVID-19 has continued to affect our day-to-day lives in terms of our health, but it has also highlighted existing issues of poverty and inequality within Australia. Despite being more than two years into the pandemic, Foodbank are still seeing the continuing impacts on job security and financial stability, and we are not going back to our pre-COVID-19 levels of food insecurity.

Alarmingly, hunger in Australia is on the rise and the average monthly demand for food relief is up 50% on 2019 levels, due to a combination of more people seeking food relief and people seeking it more often. Foodbank is reporting heightened demand for food relief across the country, particularly in regional areas. Some of our charity partners are reporting increases of 60%-100% in individual and family presentations and 1 in 3 people seeking food relief are new to the situation. The face of hunger is diverse - those affected are men and women, children and the elderly. They are single and in families, students, employed, unemployed and retired. At particular risk are people with disabilities, refugees and those of Aboriginal and Islander descent.

Foodbank is now providing relief to more than 1 million Australians per month through a network of 2,950 front-line charities, and also supporting 2,890 schools by providing food for School Breakfast Programs. In 2021, we sourced 48.1 million kilograms of food and groceries, which equates to 86.7 million meals, or 238,000 meals a day.

To ensure our warehouses always have key staple products in stock, Foodbank collaborates with our invaluable food and grocery partners to manufacture Key Staple Products like milk, cereal, eggs, tinned vegetables, pasta, pasta sauce and meat that do not come in sufficient quantities via traditional food rescue channels. By proactively purchasing these items at the lowest cost possible, Foodbank can provide nutritious and convenient food for as long as people need it.

The future

The continuing effects of COVID-19, combined with cost-of-living pressures such as increased food price inflation, rising electricity, fuel and gas prices, housing unaffordability and unavailability means we are bracing for even higher levels of demand. Thanks to your generous support, we can continue feeding Australians in need every day.