“A $2 million dollar boost” to ceo-heavy vanity projects such as Ozharvest and Foodbank is more insult than cash splash from the government at the start of Antipoverty Week for 2026. With people on welfare more than overrepresented in early death figures, and deaths of despair (addiction and mental health related deaths) happy snaps and breathy thank you from Big Names in Food Relief take over from the every day stories of people queuing up to hopefully get a free bag of veges that they hopefully don’t have to throw out too much of themselves.
"It’s the start of Anti-Poverty Week, and instead of ending government induced poverty the Minister for Social Services has announced meagre funding for emergency relief charities that amounts to less than $1 per welfare recipient, while people in this country are dying from poverty."
I mean I only had to throw out 2/5 apples in this weeks bag, and most of the grapes are fine. At least it’s not the crumpets I was relieved my partner declined because when i went to have one the morning I brought THOSE home they had those little spots of mold you cant see through the thick plastic.
Long life milk has just gone up to $1.80 a litre at my local, after hitting $1.50 this time last year. So have most canned goods, which are still waaaay cheaper at aldi, but you know it’s not the name brands as donated with much fan fare to the purple supermarket…
Anyway
Raise the rate, build and buy public housing, put a rent freeze in place and empower people to look after themselves and their communities.
Happy Anti-Poverty Week!
I have written a million things on the folly of foodbanks already Feel free to share and quote them
Just sorting out my meds this morning, making sure I’m ready for another week. Looking after me so I can look after me and then look after others.
We lost another community member.
David’s death is at the hands of the politicians who talk about helping others but leave them in the gutter. That put maintaining the status quo of more investment properties for themselves and their mates over having a public housing safety net for all who need and want it. Who want to make sure that the NDIS is seen as tough and efficient but can’t get back to applicants with supports and then make them reapply all over again, but oh look there’s another barrier because a report is now out of date or their drivers license is expired and so they can’t make ID points.
I’m tired and angry and sick of all this and it doesn’t have to be this way but those in the powers that be in governments and social services keep it this way.
Like, is this a good news story from the weekend? Daniel was repeatedly and illegally cut off his meagre welfare payment, surviving off the small amount his father was able to give him to pay for his medications. Daniel was made homeless by an uncaring system that can’t even get his own processes right. Daniel is getting nearly three years back pay – but that is only $52k. And he held off revealing his story until that was paid because through fear it would be withheld by a system that’s known to dish dirt on the poor and vulnerable to protect its own image and keep its system working.
They have learned nothing from Robodebt except that they can get away with it. That Daniel and David will be blips on their radars, that no matter whether it’s the red or blue team they can sweep them aside and keep their jobs or move into better ones. Royal commissions and NACC mean shit when Scotty’s got a new job and Bill Shortens robot got binned but people are still out there dying because the “Welfare” system doesn’t care about the welfare of the worst off.
Kylea Tink is Foodbank’s new CEO. You may remember her as a teal independent, but now she’s pretending to make a difference by expanding the amount governments and individuals spend on food relief – on the food itself, on the warehouses, the trucks, the fundraisers and the branding. Oh the branding. She joins former NSW Premier John Robertson who’s the NSW CEO. Because we need multiple layers of CEOs.
They’ll put out press releases about how many are going hungry and how you too cold help out by giving their particular organisation (or OzHarvest, or Second Bite) money to fund x amount of meals or a food hamper. These press releases rarely mention that this poverty is manufactured by supermarkets that would rather over order and over change and feel good donating excess stocks than running their businesses at slightly less profit but still making a motsa and not creating food waste. Or the politicians that give another grant for another warehouse, another charity another photo opp to support the needy, but could lift so many out of this situation with a nimble piece of legislation that lifts welfare payments above the poverty line. Or at all levels buying and building public housing (States and Federal and even local councils) so that people can be immediately housed rather than renting hovels through layers of community housing providers that don’t provide guarantees of tenure.
Poverty has risen over the three years of a Labor government, and people are dying. People are dying because they’re being left behind. They’re not able to afford to feed themselves properly or to attend to their health care – people can’t afford to go to the doctor or to buy the meds their need to stay healthy. NDIS is cutting supports that are working for people while telling us that no, noone’s losing supports and here we are losing our minds. Being house should be a given but relying on the private market when public housing has ten year wait lists and crisis accommodation is two weeks in a seedy mote with a dozen others at the worst points in their lives is certainly not helping anyone.
It’s a thousand straws on each camels back, and they all carry so much weight. People can’t do it alone but too many are forced to. And they struggle on and if they get the hand their need to make it through they just might. Is that hand going to be on a case by case basis from and for an individual or will our governments actually step up to provide the supports that people need? To everyone?
So I’m going to take my meds that I’m blessed to be able to afford and stay strong for myself so that I can look after myself so I can look after others.
In terms of mental health numbers, in NSW I’ve found the mental health helpline useful for support for myself and others. There are other services and ideas listed on that page. Lifeline also has sms and online crisis chat in certain hours as well as the usual phone – 13 11 14.
Labor is back with a bigger majority and only really needing to appease the Greens in the upper house to get anything done. But what will they use this for and will it be at all progressive? Or will they still pretend they can’t do things their supposed base want – such as all the local groups calling for sanctions on Israel, or community groups seeking investment in public housing or increased welfare payments – because I’m skeptical as always, and fell sad that I have to wait and see.
Takoyaki, $10
But first – I turned 43 yesterday and all I wanted was to have Takoyaki and chill, and that I did!
Bruce and I dropped his car off for new tyres – finally spending the money I got from the selective schools supervision earlier this year – then we went to try Umi, the newer of the two Japanese restaurants in Toronto. It’s a bit less fancy that Mizumi which we’ve gone to for many birthdays since it’s been there, and it was very quiet being only 11am on a Tuesday, but there were a few people coming in for their Bento as we were heading out.
Ramune, $6
I normally get lemon iced tea with my Japanese food, but went the ramune today as a special treat. They were tempting me with grape soda though!
Miso soup, $4
We started with some miso soup, the takoyaki and some kara-age chicken. Bruce has been watching more Japanese and other Asian food tourism videos, such as from Dancing Bacons and making me want to travel and eat and eat and travel. But that’s not anywhere near in my future, so local it is!
Kara-age chicken, $13
Obviously being my birthday we had to follow the tasty fried goodies with their Umi Supreme Variety of sashimi: Hamachi (Kingfish), Hotate (Scallop), Salmon, Tuna, Octopus (3 pcs each), and Salmon Roe. Love popping the little roe balls in my mouth lol. Tasty fresh fish!
Umi Supreme, $42
We left full and happy and in no mood for dessert, so picked up a tray of cake pieces from Coles to graze on later, and browsed some op shops til I got over it and just wanted to go home (via picking up the car with the fresh tyres and avoiding the traffic chaos that seemed to be everywhere yesterday!)
Coles Cake Variety, $22
My parents got us a new coffee machine which was on special during the prime day sales and we’d had our eyes one. Slowly getting the hang on the manual pour and getting the accessories to help make the tasty morning brews.
Delonghi Stilosa, $120 on sale
I’ve also been spoiled by my internet friends, with some items off my wishlists coming already and a few more to come! (and I few I’ve bought with birthday money from other amazing souls!)
Backpack from Leigh and porridge sachets and mocha sachets from Jave from my Amazon listHello Kitty Mug Stack from Sally off my Amazon wishlist.
So, back to reality after a food coma Tuesday afternoon – I didn’t miss much from the first sitting day of the parliament – lots of speeches and ceremonies and the like. A rally and vigil for Palestine outside parliament has been ongoing and well attended.
They’re introducing the “20% off HECS” bill today which will help a few but again it’s a drop in the ocean compared to recent indexation amounts and the rapid increase in house prices which is the real reason university graduates can’t afford to buy homes, rather than their HECS stopping them.
Hounding people on low incomes for so-called "overpayments" based on dubious data is petty and cruel.
Labor's Centrelink payments are below the poverty line. The last thing recipients need is the Government pursuing them to disprove a dodgy – and often decades old – debt notice. pic.twitter.com/zaE3jalLqn
— Penny Allman-Payne (@senatorpennyqld) July 18, 2025
Historic welfare debts are back, with court backing to pursue them. Labor should have at least legislated the recommended 6 year limit on debt collection, like applies for ATO debts, but they chose not to. They have no excuse not to this term, with their majority overflowing to the opposition benches of the house, but really, they have no will to. Unfortunately there’s gonna be more ugly deaths they can be accounted for by neglect through state enforced poverty.
Meanwhile we get an economic round table with tech, business and mining representatives, but no one from health or disability, even though “Delivering quality care more efficiently” is one of their “productivity pillars“?
One of our local Labor MPs (and deputy speaker) was boasting about their 25% increase in food relief and “financial wellbeing” support – such as financial counselors and food and petrol vouchers and more money for food banks. This is not something to celebrate. You CANNOT budget your way out of poverty – when welfare is half the poverty line you just cannot find that extra money. More happy snaps and warehouses rented, which people just can’t afford to feed and house themselves and their families? Not a win Sharon.
One of my Antipoverty Centre comrades gave me a great birthday present – a few more FOI requests on food relief charities to go through when I can focus on them. Let’s see how they manage to leverage their gearing this year or whatever business words they use for being a middleman between actual humans and often unsuitable food. GO you guys!
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.
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.
So one way Foodbank sources staples is the "collaborative supply program" where the supplier donates the indigents but foodbank pays for the production. Thus the Vetta povvo branded pasta for $1 at your local food pantry pic.twitter.com/5RR9ieFfSx
— 💜 phonakins 🍉 speak because your voice shakes (@phonakins) April 8, 2025
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
