Tag: foodbank

Foodbank hunger report – turning the temperature up on that donated tin of Sketti

The Foodbank Annual Hunger Report came out yesterday – one in three households now fall into the categories of food insecurity – kicking off the downhill to Christmas with the ramping up of the asks from Charities – including the Kmart / Salvos wishing tree (you know the one that Leigh gave the golden plated cheese platter to one year) 

A kitchen counter is covered with a large assortment of groceries and household items. In the foreground from left to right are a blue cloth, packaged carrots, a bag of 25 percent less carbs bread, a pink box of chocolates, a clear bag of wrapped green candies, a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates, a large plastic-wrapped loaf of Abbotts Bakery bread, and a bottle of Schweppes sparkling water. Behind them are multiple canned goods including four tins of tuna, jars of Dolmio pasta sauce and mayonnaise, a yellow container of Moccona coffee, a red box of Kellogg's Nutri Grain Protein Cereal, a white box fan, a wire basket holding oranges and green apples, a roll of paper towels, and a stainless steel utensil holder. A large blue patterned bag sits on the left side of the counter. The background shows a wooden chair, a bed with rumpled bedding, a purple storage bin with clothes, and a glass door leading outside. Visible text includes Kellogg's Nutri Grain Protein Cereal, 20 percent protein, Real nourishment, Abbotts Bakery, Ferrero Rocher, 25 percent less carbs, Dolmio, Moccona, Schweppes, and various other brand names on packaging. The scene is lit by indoor daylight.
Assorted discounted groceries from the church food pantry

It’s a frenzy of poverty porn – the “good” people able to afford to put a present under the tree, the parents having to be grateful for whatever some their way, a toy of someone else’s choice rather than the money to buy what the kids actually wanted this year. The calls for donations for hampers – both cash and items – with charities setting the prices for the ones they ship to the local distributive sites. – an amount that could well buy someone more of what they and their family actually wanted on their table if they were allowed to just have money rather than the layers of inefficiency that come with charities in this country. Four lollipops with googly eyes and drawn mouths stand in a row on a solid pink surface. From left to right: a red lollipop with a downturned mouth frowns, a green lollipop has a straight horizontal mouth, a yellow lollipop has a small round open mouth, and an orange lollipop smiles with an upturned mouth. To the left of the photograph, large black text reads THE HIDDEN HARMS OF FOOD BANKS. Below it, purple text reads How the NGO industrial complex keeps us poor. A date in the bottom right corner reads 6/23/2025. The image is a presentation slide.

Centrelink Cancellations also resumed yesterday – the ones they quietly switched off last year because they were either deemed illegal or they really thought it was only a matter of time til they were. Debts calculated through income-appointment are also being re-actioned after being on pause. More people on the edge, having their below the poverty line payments cancelled, paused or garnished. 

Groceries including a bag of green grapes, four red apples, a loaf of mixed grain bread, a loaf of white sandwich bread, two bags of baby cos lettuce, a bag of carrot sticks, and a bag of organic salad mix.
Free Groceries and bread

Because all these things will “turn down the temperature” as the phrase of the week after the attack on Helen Haines. A story from the Guardian over the weekend started to touch on the issues in “the regions” – all issues in the cities but magnified the further you are from the even thousand postcodes. The lack of mental and other healthcare, NDIS eligibility, and lack of staff to support such schemes when you do “qualify”.

Hunger does not affect everyone equally Beneath Australia’s overall food insecurity rate lies a widening divide between households with resources and those without. Where people live, how they are housed, whether they are healthy and the income available to them, all determine whether they can afford enough food. Only 12% of households that own their home outright experience food insecurity. Among renters that figure rises to 51%. National rents have increased 40.6% over the past five years due to the sustained cumulative increases. Renters are paying an additional $204 per week in rent. The previous five-year period (June 2016 to June 2021) only saw median rents rise by $55 per week, or 12.2%.

Renters are finally reaching their limits in what they can pay – which just forces those at the top of that pool into competing for the cheaper “less desirable” homes, pushing the pensioners and others on low incomes into the parks and carparks around town. A problem to be moved on. To be fought over whose problem it isn’t.

So, we’re tired, and hungry, lacking in access to health care and stable housing, but what does Foodbank suggest we do about the food insecurity part?

To meaningfully reduce food insecurity, Australia must: 1. Set a national baseline for School Breakfast Programs Establish a national minimum standard for school breakfast programs, ensuring every Australian child has access to a nutritious breakfast at school by 2030. 2. Increase investment in food relief Ensure food relief organisations have the resources required to meet growing demand and respond rapidly during periods of heightened economic hardship. 3. Improve access to food relief Increase awareness, availability and accessibility of support services, particularly in regional Australia. 4. Address income inadequacy Strengthen the financial safety net to ensure social security payments and household incomes better reflect the true cost of living. 5. Support renters and vulnerable households Develop targeted measures for renters, low-income households, people living with disability and other groups facing disproportionate risk.

AS always, they call for MORE food relief, to expand the footprint of, what I refer to as “Australia’s third (or fourth, have you tried shopping at Aldi?) supermarkets” – surely with so many people accessing Foodbank-supplied charities the reach of the purple supermarket is getting up there, especially when you add the fleet of yellow OzHarvest trucks moving veges from place to place? With the amount of money donated to and granted to these charities, it really doesn’t seem unviable to have  government subsidised or owned shops – take back the ownership over the money people are throwing into them already? It’s just that if it’s run by the government apparently it’s a bad thing and you need a layer of branding and staffing outside the APS to make it a good thing, actually. (I swear one of the unintended consequences of the NDIS was so many cringe names for support services). With the cost of diesel, the food and fuel miles must be adding up moving the food further than the intended point of purchase.

“Addressing income inadequacy” is how they’ve phrased raising welfare payments and ensuring wages keep up with the rapid increases in inflation on essential items. A reminder to the unionists – a livable welfare safety net only increases your bargaining power and boosts the wages of the poorest – many of whom are juggling welfare and work (as well as life and caring responsibilities). Housing – cost and availability, let alone suitability for an ageing and increasingly disabled population – is the HUGE issue not being addressed by current “affordable housing” and private investment. 

As an aside – love me a good school breakfast program. Both for getting kids learning and taking pressure off families. But like all programs how do you cater for our loveable quirky kids who only eat dry home brand Nutrigrain in a pink bowl? *ahem* 

6. Reduce stigma Create a national conversation that normalises seeking assistance and recognises that food insecurity can affect anyone. 7. Treat food security as a national priority Recognise access to adequate food as a foundational social and economic issue that affects health, education, productivity and community wellbeing. 8. Make it as easy as possible for producers and manufacturers to supply surplus produce to charities for redistribution Introduce incentives that help farmers and manufacturers donate surplus produce and support food relief organisations to recover it. Australia has the resources, the knowledge and the capability to address hunger. What is needed now is collective determination. In a country as prosperous as ours, one in three households experiencing food insecurity should never be accepted as normal.

I worry about “reducing stigma” as I don’t always think it’s really about external stigma. Some comes from actually making the end-users feel safe to access the services on offer in their communities. I know people who have trauma from religion and would not have been able to sit through the – just cringe to me – prayer before they started distribution at the local joint Salvos/Adventist weekly food pantry. It’s about the lady asking you to repeat yourself with a “please” when if you ask (I thought nicely enough) if it was okay to take a particular item. It’s a very personal thing, and “normalising” something that really shouldn’t be an every day or week thing isn’t helpful in my eyes. This isn’t normal. Being told to be grateful for a bag of veges that you have to throw out half of yourself isn’t NORMAL.

A green plastic shopping basket filled with groceries viewed from above. In the front are a blue Oreos Original Cheese box, a white Bundaberg Lemon Lime & Bitters Soda can with lemon graphic, a small jar with blue lid, a yellow package, two Bundaberg Passionfruit six-packs with fruit graphics, a package of Montecatini Style Chorizo sausages, a red-capped jar, a package of Lebanese cucumbers, three loose red tomatoes on the vine, a bag of Gourmet Mix salad leaves with price tag showing $1.65, a bag of frozen chicken, and a Don small goods package. To the left of the basket are stacked grocery boxes including one labeled Im New Ginger Orange. Visible text includes Oreos, Original Cheese, Lift to Open, Bundaberg, Soda, Lemon Lime & Bitters, Passionfruit, Montecatini Style Chorizo, Lebanese Cucumbers, Gourmet Mix, and $1.65. The setting is a supermarket aisle with shelves of products in the background.
Discounted groceries from Woolies

Normal is having the cash to buy at your local supermarket or other market. It’s being able to shop the bargains of end of day specials rather than relying on the distribution of these to the poors a day or so later at the food pantry – if you get there early enough to get one of the 8 bags on offer as it was this Monday. 

I always say yes, there is a place for emergency food support – in disasters, if someone has to flee the family home, people are unwell. But this can be done through community care, or through the government, or, when people have enough to feed their own households having a little extra for Frank next door. it doesn’t take a network of purple and yellow trucks – people are still picking up food waste from local bakeries and supermarkets and taking it to share with those in need at the established food pantries regardless of how much they buy from Foodbank or Second Bite.

Less branding more community. 

I get confused (and clumsy) when I’m tired

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.

“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.

Anzac biscuits cost more at the food bank than Aldi. That’s it. That’s the title.

So, I got access to a FOI (freedom of information) request about a grant “Grant agreements and expenditure reports for identified grants with Oz Harvest, SecondBite, Foodbank Australia” through my Antipoverty Centre connections. I’d like to say it’s shocking but then it’s all so fucking broken out there than it doesn’t surprise me any more that these organisations use language like “capturing new markets” and talk about how the “gearing” of certain essential items is better than others and they’re happy to source from overseas if it means better gearing.

I did learn more about how their povvo pasta and similar “collaborative supply program” products work – the company donates the ingredients and Foodbank pays for the production (then on-sells the items to local food pantries aka “emergency relief organisations” EROs). They also purchase other staples direct at mates rates – at least 40% below retail price, more often 50%. Which again then gets sold onto local EROs for distribution (sale or giving out.

I also read about how the “food rescue” organisations like OzHarvest and SecondBite source extra produce if it’s in high demand – yeah they buy it using grant money. Not so food recue anymore.

One of the organisations also noted that there was high demand for gift cards – again not food rescue anymore – but that doesn’t help supply food on the ground if there’s a natural disaster.

So much money is spent on transport and warehousing and “relationships” and advertising and branding and so on.

The major supermarkets in this country – Coles, Woolworths, Aldi, IGA and Foodbank.

Just give people enough money to afford to feed themselves maybe? FFS

PURPLE

Food banks are broken, just like the rest of system they are in

So, I’ve been sharing this article “Shopping at Australian food charities can be more expensive than supermarkets. What’s gone wrong?” because I’m the foodbank user quoted and because the whole system is broken when charities on the ground are struggling to afford to buy food from mega charities to continue their essential work on the ground.

Regulars here know the story – I shop around foodbanks and Aldi and occasionally the majors since I have all three in my major town centre, in order to get the best value for myself and my little family that looks different each time I take stock. I haven’t gotten back to doing that this year – the food charities are reopening this week after Xmas shutdown, and I don’t have access to a car all the time since one is off the road at the moment. So I’m shopping at Aldi (or my partner is) and we’re getting our meal boxes and I’m sure it’s better for my waistline to not be able to get more food for less, but ugh I’m bored lol. Also, my stepson’s summer job just ended so he’s eating more at home and earning less until the Centrelink systems are reliable enough to reapply for jobseeker or he can find another casual job around the place.

Foodbank branches in NSW and Victoria operate under different rules: in NSW, charities who buy from Foodbank can charge their customers, while in Victoria charities must give the food away. The money Foodbank charges charities covers its handling fees – the cost of sourcing and redistributing the food. A Victorian-based charity worker, who did not want to be named, said that Foodbank had raised its prices to the point where the charity she works at was struggling to stay open. Screenshots taken last month from Foodbank’s online pantry, seen by Guardian Australia, show some items were significantly more expensive compared with major supermarkets. Composite image of dishwashing liquid prices on websites View image in fullscreen Some products are cheaper at major supermarkets, in this case dishwashing liquid at Woolworths. Composite: Woolworths website/Foodbank website Charities could buy dry dog food from Foodbank for $2.08 per 100g, compared with $0.23 per 100g at Coles. Dishwashing liquid was $1.15 for 495ml at Foodbank while shoppers could buy a litre for under $1.50 at all three majors. The charity worker says Foodbank prices have spiked in the last two years. In 2022, she says a dozen 450g cans of tinned ham cost $3.02 but last month was $64.30. In 2022, a dozen 400g Christmas puddings cost $5.40 but was now $43.80.

I knew that charities on the ground were facing increased costs for their purchases from Foodbank, but I didn’t realise it had gone up so much.

But I don’t see the answer as giving more money to Foodbank itself. They have corporate and individual donors, they have government funding, volunteer labour and other in-kind support, and yet they still have to charge more to the charities on the ground to receive the food and other items.

She stresses Foodbank provides a vital service, that they do good work and are underfunded. But the system is broken, she says. “The point is, they should be well funded so they don’t have to sell food, right? And we should be well funded so we don’t have to sell food.” The federal assistant minister for charities, Andrew Leigh, says “Labor strongly supports the value of food relief”. “Over the past 12 months, we have announced nearly $20m in additional funding for emergency and food relief charities,” Leigh said in a statement.

I also find myself even more cranky at the local charities that on-sell the items with significant markups (to just under full major supermarket prices) to fund their other work. Whether that’s to fund their free food hampers to those even more in need than the regular foodbank shopper, to pay their rent of warehouses, or to go into their missionary coffers (yes it happens), if there’s such a shortage of food coming into Foodbank warehouses as donations or being purchased it shouldn’t be marked up. Selling it on at your cost when it’s an essential item should be expected. (I’ll pay a markup on my short-dated Lindt though, happy to help when I’m able).

I’ll come back to it again – people need enough money to survive. They need to be able to afford to buy the food and other essential items they need to survive. Welfare rates need to be above the poverty line. People need to be able to afford to buy groceries and afford healthcare. There’s a lot that candidates can take into the election this year, and I want to see more of them promising to do the easy thing to lift millions out of poverty – Raising the rate of all welfare payments above the poverty line. That will cut demand greatly for emergency hampers that charities hand out each week. That will enable people to be able to directly support their own families and friends in need.

There is a place for emergency help – but having large corporate charity machines is not lessening the need for it.

 

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: