Xmas Shutdown – Much needed time off for Volunteers, but here’s how long til the Food Banks reopen

Second last morning for my regular food bank this morning. After Wednesday 11/12 they reopen on January 6. Knowing them, they’ll be delivering emergency hampers this whole time. Emergency hampers not funded by the government, but from funds they’re raised through the year from community members and local businesses.

They’re frantically prepping for their Xmas party Sunday. They have gifts for 2000 kids and hundreds of hampers. They’re even doing gift cards for teens, getting donations for them from local businesses.

palates of standard $25 foodbank hampers

Another local foodbank closes Wed 18th at lunchtime, reopens January 13. Another weekly one does their last $15 hampers on the 19th and then comes back Jan 16.

last year's foodbank christmas hamper

Obviously, all these volunteers well and truly deserve a break, and school holidays and Christmas means less people available to help out. A few more just generally close for school holidays (so not back until February). So then, people are left to their own devices, a time when schools are closed, work schedules are thrown out (sometimes way more work sometimes way less), Centrelink reporting is earlier and people either get paid earlier with the public holidays or they miss the early reporting date and have to stretch til the payment comes through.

We also all know the chaos of holiday grocery shopping, even on more generous budgets.

So, on this day where Youth Payment indexation has been advertised – up to $24.30 extra a fortnight from Jan 1 – and organisations are asking the government to raise the rate of welfare payments, let’s aim for better and ask for ALL payments to be raised above the poverty line – at last $88 a day if we go with the Henderson Poverty Line. People need money to survive, they can’t actually access safety nets like food banks all year around, give them the dignity of choosing and buying their own food – for Christmas and for every day.

Happy #PoveratiXmas to those that observe!

The term poverati was used derogatively towards antipoverty activists on Twitter a couple of years back. It’s meant to deride – to poke fun at a group of people doing their best to find community through shared experience of poverty. I first heard it from a think tank member claiming to be working in the interests of poor people in this country. So, we reclaim it, and use it for a little fun ourselves.

The #PoveratiXmas will be observed on Twitter and Blue Sky this year with a thread being posted on today on each site for community members to post their wishlists and pay links so that hopefully some benevolent fairies will come through and fund some wishes.

The threads are:

Twitter: https://x.com/phonakins/status/1862973298818388264

Blue Sky: https://bsky.app/profile/phonakins.com/post/3lc72lnn3cs2l

It’s up to the individual whether they participate. You can be on welfare or not, there’s plenty of people struggling on low incomes, with disabilities or as carers and many reasons out there so don’t be judgy of others xoxo

Please, if you have the means, try to fund a wish and share with your communities so that more people can have their wishes funded.

Wishes can be anything from groceries to fun things like computer games. Anything to make this life and season more bearable to the #Poverati

I had a request to post a different kind of wishlist here:

My Wish List... isn't for Christmas and it isn't stuff that I can buy. Not for lack of money – my bank balance has become a bit of an embarrassment; No number of disappointing impulse buys (or worse, the carefully researched and planned budget buys that come up a lemon) can put a dent in it. So the first thing on my wish list is help with spending those idle dollars. By the time some or all of them are spent, I should end up with most of the rest of the things I'm wishing for: 1. Transport for me, and my dog Ishka to an actual city, as far South on the Australian mainland as possible. The cost to transport me, by rail, to Melbourne, would be in the range of $300 - $400; Ishka, by road, through a transport & kenneling service $800 - $900. 2. Somewhere to live when I arrive wherever. Shared accommodation would be fine. I've looked at Flatmates.com.au a couple of times recently but my thinking hits the same old roadblock – how the hell do I get to meet any prospective housemates? 3. Help with disposing of a lot of unwanted stuff. I think this might be the third time that I've had to dispose of a lot of domestic stuff that I could no longer use or afford to keep in storage. Much of this lot will probably need to go into a skip, but there's some donatable stuff in the mix. So add to the budget the cost of a skip to clear the absolute garbage. 4. Help in identifying other tasks, and sub-tasks so that I end up with ... 5. A workable plan. 14 Nov 2024 I wrote the screed & list above on 10 November. Had the occasional second thoughts about whether it should be published since then because it looks like a big ask. So here's a bit of an apologia. First, writing it and sending it to phonakins actually threw a wrench in the vicious mental cycle that I was in – enough to stop the emotional flywheel spinning wildly so that I'm now able to identify, and take various measures to improve my current situation. But, ultimately, I need to get out of it. And working out how to achieve that by spending money, and by spending money alone, remains beyond me.

If you can help this person, comment below or email me phonakins@gmail.com and I’ll forward it onto him!

Food banks are just a more expensive way to get food that isn’t necessarily suitable to poor people: Prove me wrong

A christmas hamper from a foodbank
2023’s Foodbank Christmas Hamper

TFIF, am I right? And that the pollies have headed home for the summer break after a chaotic final week, and maybe we’ll get some respite from their pontificating until that election is called/ Rumours around say it’ll be in March, others say it’ll drag on til the usual May.

To follow up on my last post “Just because it’s better than nothing, doesn’t make it “good”, we head back to the food banks as the summer heat and humidity really kick in, and summer shutdowns approach. The charities themselves are also in rush mode, soliciting donations how they can while getting out the Xmas hampers to those needing the support.

But let’s break down that process a little.

Foodbank™ charges the local charities and food pantries for the hampers and food items they get from them. It’s usually $25 for a prepacked hamper, whether Xmas or through the year, and (often extremely short dated) groceries are sold and the locals then generally on sell them a little above their cost, but sometimes for more. This can be to the point where it’s cheaper to buy items from regular supermarkets, at least on special.

St Vincent de Paul Inc This CHRISTMAS HELP PEOPLE LIKE TANIA GET BACK ON THEIR FEET

They rely on the labour of volunteers – at the warehouses it’s often corporate volunteers, there paid by their regular employer, often a big (?tax avoiding) business. As do the local charities, but they’re well meaning locals, church members or someone who used the service and isn’t doing as bad as others at the moment. This labour is “free” to the charities, and most people want to be there (though we do hear of work for the dole at foodbanks) but it’s still labour.

Survivor's R Us Incorporated · 💙 SRU HAMPERS OF HOPE 💙 Many people ask how they can help us help others... here is one very important way you can help! By donating $25, you will allow us to purchase an essentials food hamper from Foodbank for someone in need. The hampers feature over $70 worth of groceries that will help the recipient create several meals and snacks - breakfast cereal, soup, pasta, noodles, tinned goods, milk, coffee, tea bags, biscuits, etc. Contributing this way will help us help people in need EVERY DAY, in fact, several times each day. You can donate via the link to our website - with paypal, direct deposit into our account, or donate while you're here shopping with us: https://www.survivorsrusincorporated.com/donations Every little bit helps! We thank you in advance.
“The hampers feature over $70 worth of groceries that will help the recipient create several meals and snacks – breakfast cereal, soup, pasta, noodles, tinned goods, milk, coffee, tea bags, biscuits, etc.”

Emergency hampers are funded by what ever the local charities can get together. SRU asks directly for $25 from supporters to buy a hamper from Foodbank. Vinnies asks for $72 so they can purchase their own for their clients. Foodbank also asks for $35 donations for hampers, again is this on top of the $25 they charge the local charities, any donations made by corporations, through telethons and ones at the checkout. They and other food relief charities like Ozharvest regularly are mentioned by politicians as receiving a block of funding to rent a new warehouse, while not mentioning WHY people can’t afford to just purchase their own food.

Vinnies NSW · Follow rpesSotndo3c c1h5 n e 0520h96ut9gt0ifu0 J i u 8fm04f2 8 31magi3h655h6 · Did you know? A $72 donation helps provide urgent, immediate assistance to a vulnerable person in our community. A $72 donation is enough to cover the cost of a hamper filled with essential food for someone who is experiencing or is at risk of homelessness this winter. More donations are needed so more hampers can be provided to people who need them. Will you donate today? Click here to learn more https://donate.vinnies.org.au/appeals-nsw/winter-appeal-nsw

The food is standard fare – pasta and vegemite, weetbix and UHT milk and the like. The Christmas ones are similar but with tinned ham and pudding and custard. Not exactly allergy friendly for my many gluten or dairy intolerant folks. All these items are purchased outright it seems for the hampers, they’re well in date and consistent in brands, though it’s possible some of the companies make specific bulk donations. Unlike the stuff that comes from the Supermarkets – the close to date foods or experimental foods that haven’t sold and Colesworth can write them off as donations rather than copping the loss because they purchased incorrectly. Don’t worry, it’s not coming out of their profits.

Then we get to the fresh produce. I picked up some bread from my local food pantry Wednesday, and threw it out Thursday because it was moldy. This heat and humidity is terrible, but the bread was best before the 24th, so for it to turn by the 28th is not all surprising. It’s a pain, and fortunately I could afford replace it with a fresh loaf when I was out last night, but for others that means no bread til Monday or Wednesday when the foodbank is open again. Freezing it as soon as I got it home Wednesday would just have meant I’d be having bread that was not yet showing mold. Yum Yum.

And this is why I scream just give people enough money to feed themselves the food they want when they want it. Raise welfare above the poverty line so people can afford fresh bread that lasts more than a day before turning. So they can buy allergy-friendly foods. So they can choose the fruit and veges and snacks they are their kids actually like to eat. Channel all that extra government funding for warehouses and transporting old food around the country into welfare payments and programs that actually support people. Give them free childcare rather than free weetbix. Tax the supermarkets and the resources companies more so they can directly fund these thigns rather than them pretending to be the good guys by writing off excess food and donating cash and staff labour and getting to put their little logos on things.

Major reform is needed, but you can start by giving people enough money to live.

Middle fingers up til the reaper shows up

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Added later cos OMG:

Just because it’s better than nothing, doesn’t make it “good”

Oh hai there, just screaming into the void that the messaging coming out from yet another report detailing the material deprivation faced by people on all welfare payments.

ACOSS has just dropped their latest Poverty and Inequality report Material deprivation in Australia: the essentials of life. It doesn’t just report on how much money people have, but also what people are not getting because they can’t afford it – covered by the surveys I discussed in this post when I was doing the Poverty course through ACOSS and UNSW – the same people conducting this study and writing this report.

2. At least 10% of people do not have one or more of five out of 23 essential items. While some of the 23 essential items are almost universally owned (only 0.2% of people did not have warm clothes and bedding if it’s cold), a much higher proportion of people did not have the following five items: • home contents insurance (22% lacked this), getting together with friends or relatives at least once a month for a drink or meal (22%), a yearly dental checkup for each child (13%), new school clothes for school-age children every year (33%), or a hobby or a regular leisure activity for children (14%). The most common items people said they lacked because they couldn’t afford them are: home contents insurance (8%), at least $500 in savings for an emergency (7%), comprehensive motor vehicle insurance (5%) and dental treatment when needed (4%).

“The most common items people said they lacked because they couldn’t
afford them are: home contents insurance (8%), at least $500 in savings for
an emergency (7%), comprehensive motor vehicle insurance (5%) and dental treatment when needed (4%).”

Yeah, I have none of those things. If I needed dental treatment I’d try the NSW health clinic as that’s an option, or I’d ask family for money to help pay, or put it on ZipPay or get a Centrelink advance, but I don’t have the funds for such things as routine. I said to others doing that course that as much as they’d hope the person crashing into them in their shitbox at least had third party property insurance to cover their car’s damage, the reality is we often don’t, Greenslips for injury are compulsory but you’re making a huge assumption that we’ll be able to pay for your damage.

4. People on working-age income support payments face a much higher risk of multiple deprivation: • The rates of deprivation are close to or exceed 10% for 30% (seven items) of the 23 essential items for people on a JobSeeker Payment and for around 26% (six items) for people receiving a Parenting Payment or a Disability Support Pension. • People receiving JobSeeker Payment are five times more likely than all people (the population average rate) to lack two or more essential items (45% compared to 9% for the population). One in two are deprived of at least two items and one in three of at least three items. • People receiving Parenting Payment are four times more likely than all people to lack two or more essential items (38% compared to 9% for the population). Approximately one in four are deprived of three or more items. • People receiving Disability Support Pension or Youth Allowance are two to three times more likely than all people to lack two or more essential items (29% and 23% respectively). One in four people on these payments are deprived of at least two items. • People on a Carer Payment are two times more likely to lack two or more essentials items (17%) or three or more items (10%).But it’s the messaging around this report and others that always gets me. The report straight up says that DSP and Carer’s payments leave people struggling, and yet ACOSS et al come out asking for payments to be raise to that level – the $82/day for a single aged or disabled pensioner leaves them below the poverty line and skipping meals, health care and cheaping out on cooling in this heatwave while trying to stay in a likely substandard rental.

graph of bedroom temperate overnight
Reactivated my bedroom thermometer last night – you can pinpoint when my partner put the air con on in the living room and it trickled down the hall to our room

So aim higher. Ask for an amount that will make a difference. The Henderson Poverty Line is around $87 a day (it fluctuates, but if you need to put a number on it). This doesn’t take into account the extra costs of being disabled or chronically ill, but again it’s a start for adults to have enough money to meet their basic needs.

We have an election to be called any time now (it’ll be by May and that’ll be here before we know it) so get your ducks in a row and ask for good things, not incremental “improvements” that leave people in poverty. They haven’t given you your meagre asks anyway. Maybe Labor will be desperate enough to actually promise something progress, Miles style?

 

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My submission to the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024 [Provisions] inquiry

When they give you 24 hours to respond to an enquiry, you don’t have time to do the referenced researched work of an advocacy organisation, so you smash out something, so in true “egirl and activist” form, here’s what I just sent in:

To the Committee

I have lived, worked and socialised in online places since 2000. As an older teenager, I met lifelong friends on early forums, including people who were younger than the 16 year old proposed social media ban age. Most of these young people could hold their own online then, and most teenagers these days are more literate in social media and online safety than older adults. They are able to access information to help them navigate life through online services. Forums like the ones I accessed as a teen and now ones that are serving the same function on social media sites are a lifeline to marginalised young people. It is where young queer kids can access information on what life can be like outside of heteronormative suburban Australia. It is where young people with mental health issues can access support and information about how to support themselves and their peers. It’s where young carers can access support for roles they are thrown into way too early. It’s also just a place to have fun, explore interests, and learn to be yourself.

Yes, children and adults use social media to bully others. But people have managed to do that in other formats and “IRL” (in real life) as long as we’ve existed. There’s always an other, and those others – the queer kid, the Autistic teen, the otherwise different kid – will often be bullied, and online worlds are where they are able to find their kin and often find safety and know they are not alone.

My 15 year old nephew is autistic and has used social media – mostly Instagram and Facebook – as a way to explore his interests and has developed many skills and his language has developed greatly this way.

My 13 year old niece has reassured me that teenagers will find ways to communicate with each other in positive and negative ways even with any bans brought in – whether this is by lying about ages, by getting their parents to sign them into things, or just making new ways to communicate and finding new apps that escape regulation.

As an adult, I’m wary of giving over personal details to multiple companies based all over the world in order to continue to keep in touch with friends and colleagues. My work is based online, and I use X, Bluesky and Facebook daily in that work. Work that helps support marginalised adults and children in the welfare system. Social media is a literal lifeline for many poor people who, with a basic smartphone, can now access support and information for their disabilities, to escape violence, to deal with bureaucracy, to access food banks, and much more. This is not support that should be kept from someone because they are under 16 or don’t have or want to share their identifying documents with international companies.

Security breaches of trusted companies such as Optus left many who normally wouldn’t think twice about whether it was safe to give such information over questioning whether their identities were safe.

A social media ban for under 16s is unworkable and potentially harmful to young people who will lose access to support networks and resources. Yes, there is harm done online, but harm is done everywhere, and by driving kids underground you are not going to protect them.

 

This bill should not be passed, full stop.

Kind regards

Fiona Moore

e-girl and activist

phonakins.com

Send something in if you can here.

A template that might help you:

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