So tired. My foot hurts.
It’s not about a particular charity, I just talk about Foodbank because I’m a “customer” and we all need food.
I went into their ACNC listings today and this bit got to me (yes in amongst all the large amount of money changing hands for wages and rent and transport and buying food and selling food and school breakfast and so much more rather than just going directly to people in need to do with what they need to) from the Foodbank Victoria 2024 financials:
“Advocacy – Be the leading voice for those in need of food We will deepen existing relationships and explore new partnerships that strengthen and expand our food relief work and allow us to be the voice and storyteller for all those in need of food relief.”
This is without any mention of the word poverty in the whole document. “Welfare” or “Pension” is not even mentioned. “Cost of living” is 3 times – in relation to increased demand and how “working families” and “the elderly” (not pensioners) are over represented as clients. Oh and decreased monetary donations such as at the checkout.
There is no lobbying from these organisations to raise welfare above the poverty line. Foodbank is a member of ACOSS, who also doesn’t have in its current asks welfare above the poverty line.
BUT TO SPEAK FOR PEOPLE IN NEED OF FOOD?
Do jam that pack of ANZAC biscuits in your mouth and shut up and listen to people in need. Let them talk for themselves and not through the filter of your organisational expansion goals.
Oh and it’s not one particular aspect of the reselling of donated or cheaply sourced groceries that gets me. It gets me that Foodbank highlights that they are struggling for food donations so has to buy it to keep up the supply. It bothers me that they then sell this on to local charities. It then bothers me that these charities feel the need to mark these up (a little or a lot) in order to fund their rent and emergency hampers. It bothers me that items end up similarly priced to supermarkets. It bothers me that there is so much machinery and expense around all this.
When people just need money to be able to buy their own groceries. When and what they need. Where they prefer to. Without restricted choices of what someone else considers important.
Yes, some people will always need emergency aid. There’ll be people with nothing for whatever reason – maybe they’re escaping violence or had a natural disaster or their house burned down, but guess what? When the rest of us can sustain ourselves, we have more to share directly with our neighbours and relatives and strangers who need a quick hand. Without the need for warehouses and charities taking details and eligibility and rationing something that’s actually pretty fucking abundant in this country.