Journey Church food bank staff, from left Mere Vono, Deeana Bradley, Leone Kretschmer, and Rowena Bradley
The message is the same across the region – demand for foodbanks services is increasing.
Te Kuiti Food Bank delivers weekly food parcels to the town’s schools from Journey Church.
“We deliver five parcels a week that the principals can pass on to the families who really need it,” said Journey Church senior pastor Terry Bradley.
“Some of the people who really need it tend not to come and get help.”
A further 15 parcels a week are handed out by the foodbank on the two days it is open, bringing the total up to about 20 a week.
“We handed out eight parcels today,” Bradley said of the Sheridan Street operation on Monday.
The foodbank is mostly funded by the Ministry of Social Development, with some community donations, including $30,000 worth of parcels distributed just before Christmas.
In Te Awamutu the Combined Churches Foodbank needs more food, more space to store it, and more volunteers to pack it, as post-Christmas demand busts records.
Foodbank co-ordinator Rita Middleton said demand had almost doubled in two years. Volunteers handed out 784 parcels last year, compared to 400 in 2022.
“In the first week back after the Christmas break, we handed out 23 parcels,” Middleton said. “It really is a matter of people coming to us and saying, ‘we have no food to feed our children’.”
If demand continued at that rate throughout the year the bank would need to provide nearly 4000 food parcels.
As demand increases Middleton said, so does the need for storage and the organisation is quickly running out of space. She also needs people to help prepare food parcels and deliver them in some cases.
“We need more volunteers,” Middleton said.
The demand for food parcels from the Cambridge Corps of the Salvation Army food bank could reach record levels, as the post-Christmas credit crunch catches up with the community.
“We are currently sitting at about 80 per month but with the Government making cuts, Christmas expenses, back to school costs, I would not be surprised to see it increase to more than 100,” Salvation Army community engagement team leader Julieanna Seath said.
The food bank supplied up to 130 parcels a month in 2023. Seath said it was not just beneficiaries and the homeless looking for help, but people from dual income families who found finances stretched through no fault of their own.
