FOOD security remains a major concern for residents in the Wimmera.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Horsham Christian Emergency Food Centre is the region’s largest provider of food relief. The centre assists 260 adults and 223 children on average each month.
Foodbank’s latest Hunger Report was released this week and revealed that almost one in five Australians had experienced food insecurity during the last year.
It also revealed that people living regionally were 33 per cent more likely to go hungry than those in major cities.
Foodbank provided 23,849 kilograms of food to Horsham Christian Emergency Food Centre in 2017. The centre’s client assessment manager Bev Miatke said food insecurity was often a hidden struggle for many people.
“Things are not getting any easier for many people in our community and wider district,” she said.
“The impact of increasing utility bill prices is certainly being felt by our clients and we are finding we are getting an increased number of new clients who haven’t accessed emergency relief services in the past.
“Thankfully, due to a very supportive community and help from Foodbank we are able to support the increased need we are seeing.”
Acting client assessment manger Anne Mahony said nutritional food was always in high demand.
“We give people food that will last them a few days, but that is also enough to give them a good, solid feed for those few days. We’re really asked for anything and everything,” she said.
“We have meat, a big range of fruit and vegetables when they’re available, and there’s always milk and cereal. It doesn’t matter what people want to give to us, we take it because their generosity is amazing and we need it all.”
Ms Mahony said the centre worked with a number of charity organisations in the Wimmera region.
“We are able to refer to them if clients are needing extra help – whether it’s domestic violence or they have been kicked out of where they were living – we send them to the Salvation Army and St Vinnies,” she said.
“All of the food that is requested from those agencies comes from us.”
She said the centre had seen an increase in clients over the last year.
“It’s hard to keep up with the demand. I think that’s partly because of the cost of living; fruit and vegetable prices are horrendous,” she said.
”That’s hard for us when we go to buy things, so it’s definitely got to be hard for our clients too.
“I think people in the community would be surprised by the number of people we help each month. With the generosity of Foodbank Victoria, local people who give donations and SecondBite, we’re well stocked at the moment.
“Demand will continue to increase over the next few months; we’ll start making up our Christmas hampers and have already had some funding for that.”
Foodbank’s Hunger Report found the combination of increase costs of living and low incomes was the main reason people were unable to afford food.
Almost three in five food insecure Australians spent more than 20 per cent of their total household income on food. This was compared to 10 per cent for the average household.
Of those surveyed, at least 54 per cent of those skipped meals at least once a week, while 26 per cent went an entire day without eating at all. Only 40 per cent of people felt they could talk to friends and family about their situation.