\u201cPeople that originally could have a bit of margin in their week-to-week budget … the margin that they used to have is now spent on normal daily living like food. <\/p>\n
\u201cAll of a sudden they\u2019re fixing the car and now they\u2019ve got no money for food.\u201d <\/p>\n
Good Neighbour is a Tauranga not-for-profit that rescues surplus food and redistributes it through shared meals and pantry boxes.<\/p>\n
Hanna said the increase in demand was being matched by growing financial pressure on the charities.<\/p>\n
Good Neighbour general manager Renee Hanna. Photo \/ Alex Cairns<\/p>\n
Good Neighbour\u2019s biggest challenge was the cost of collecting and distributing food across the region. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur trucks are running five days a week on diesel with road user charges all day. It\u2019s big bills.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hanna said as fuel prices have remained high, the organisation has reviewed truck routes, staffing and day-to-day operations to reduce costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve worked really hard to get a really efficient baseline of what we do, and that means extra funding can go straight into the food and getting help to people in need.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hanna said an unexpected consequence of the cost-of-living crisis had been the quality of food arriving from supermarkets. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re getting more of the more expensive cuts of meat because people are less likely to afford that these days.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of an interesting dynamic so … a sort of a weird win for the community.”<\/p>\n
Nicki Goodwin, Tauranga Community Foodbank general manager. Photo \/ Alex Cairns<\/p>\n
Tauranga Foodbank general manager Nicki Goodwin said her biggest concern was the people who may be suffering in silence. <\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe they don\u2019t feel comfortable asking for help, maybe they don\u2019t know how to, maybe they are getting through by using credit cards or Afterpay.\u201d<\/p>\n
Goodwin said the cost of housing remained the biggest driver of food insecurity, with even dual-income households struggling to cover essential expenses. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen fixed costs such as power and rent go up, the first thing in a budget to get wiped out is the food budget.\u201d <\/p>\n
She said demand for grocery deliveries had increased by 200% in recent months as rising fuel costs had left some people unable to travel.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should all be able to afford to buy food in New Zealand. It shouldn\u2019t be considered a luxury to be able to feed yourself or your wh\u0101nau.\u201d<\/p>\n
Goodwin warned that hunger would have wider impacts on communities. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe long-term effects of hunger and desperation are reflected in decreased mental health, increased crime and low school attendance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under the Stars Charitable Trust operations co-ordinator Rose Kent-Wilson said demand had grown dramatically across almost every service the organisation provided.<\/p>\n
A year ago, the organisation prepared about 600 meals each month for the community.<\/p>\n
In May, it served 717 meals through its Thursday and Saturday services while preparing another 500 freezer meals for Tauranga Foodbank and the Salvation Army – more than 1200 meals altogether.<\/p>\n
Saturday meal services increased from around 85 people to more than 100, with peaks of 120. Demand had also increased for tents, sleeping bags, clothing, toiletries and laundry services.<\/p>\n
Kent-Wilson said financial pressure remained the biggest reason people were seeking help. <\/p>\n
\u201cCommunity organisations are increasingly filling those gaps, but demand is exceeding available resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said Under the Stars had expanded beyond meal services in response to demand, with the support of more than 120 volunteers. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have expanded beyond providing meals to include health clinics, laundry and shower facilities, veterinary support, barber services, clothing, bedding and essential hygiene items.<\/p>\n
Kent-Wilson said charities could not continue to absorb growing demand indefinitely. <\/p>\n
\u201cWithout additional funding, facilities and operational capacity, organisations like ours will struggle to meet growing demand.\u201d <\/p>\n
Zoe Blake is a multimedia journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cPeople that originally could have a bit of margin in their week-to-week budget … the margin that they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16574,56453,24747,74059,537,52606,5988,564,254484,21436,117,111,43,139,69,1118,6029,384,1886,1227,61,25809,24358,6041],"class_list":["post-511440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-bill","tag-comfortably","tag-costofliving","tag-covered","tag-crisis","tag-drives","tag-families","tag-food","tag-foodbanks","tag-grocery","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-once","tag-people","tag-support","tag-tauranga","tag-to","tag-turning","tag-wave","tag-weekly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}