Families turn to food relief charities for the firs time amid cost-of-living crisis

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The cost of living is front of mind for millions of Australians in the led up to the federal election. For many, juggling household expenses can mean deciding whether or not to go hungry. New data shows a rise in the number of people seeking food relief from charities for the first time. Lily Nothling reports on how services are struggling to keep up with demand.

Transcript

00:00Autumn Afternoons Outdoors are a routine for Skylie Taylor and her kids, the fresh air

00:11offering some breathing room in a cost of living crisis. Taking my daughter to the park like

00:19just think that's the only thing at the moment it doesn't cost money. The burden of household

00:23expenses weighs heavily on the 24-year-old Canberra mum. I was scraping by to feed everyone.

00:31I think I probably would have been in hospital from being malnourished myself,

00:35putting all the kids first and not feeding myself. So yeah, scary place to actually think of.

00:41Last year she started looking after her younger sisters but extra mouths brought extra costs.

00:48She turned to local food pantries to get by. It was hard to reach out for the help.

00:55I felt like I couldn't do it on my own which isn't a great feeling being a mum and a sister.

01:02As families feel the squeeze, so too do frontline services.

01:06Are you on the list? Otherwise write your name. Just over the ACT border, crowds queue each week

01:12at this Queenbeyan community centre to get their hands on donated groceries.

01:17Just one lot of meals. Hot meals are also in hot demand.

01:21In the last 18 months with the housing crisis but also with the cost of living,

01:27we are finding there are people that we wouldn't have necessarily seen beforehand.

01:32New figures from food rescue organisation OzHarvest shows 77% of charities around Australia

01:39have experienced a surge in people seeking food in the past year.

01:43Families are having to make decisions as to whether to pay the rent,

01:48pay the electricity or feed the family.

01:50The OzHarvest data paints a bleak picture of the cost of living crisis in the nation's capital.

01:57Of those seeking food relief around Canberra, 37% are doing so for the first time.

02:03It's the highest rate of anywhere in the country and the new faces are taking charities by surprise.

02:09It's people who have mortgages. It's people who have double incomes.

02:14And so I think in Canberra the general wealth that we experience here often means that we don't

02:22notice this level, this layer of need in our community.

02:25Charities say the sector needs more funding to fight food insecurity.

02:30Thanks so much mate.

02:31But addressing underlying causes of poverty will take bold solutions.

02:36Considering we're supposed to be the lucky country,

02:39for a lot of families it doesn't feel that lucky.

02:42Canberrans falling through the cracks, hungry for change.

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