Joanne Oliver has been serving meals to those in need for six years at One Meal in Sydney’s Blacktown but she’s never seen anything like the current demand.
“Numbers have been increasing quite dramatically,” Oliver says. “People are often lining up before we even arrive.
“We have people reaching out saying they can’t put food on the table and celebrate Christmas. They say they need to chose between the two – they can’t do both.”
Across Australia many people are feeling the rising cost of living, including rents, interest rates, groceries and bills, especially in the lead-up to Christmas.
Oliver says this has coincided with a noticeable rise demand in recent months at One Meal, a not-for-profit organisation that provides food, clothes and support to people who are homeless, disfranchised or vulnerable.
“This has been the busiest Christmas I have seen,” Oliver says. “We’ve seen some gradual increase each year but this year is another level.”
She says earlier this year there would be about 20 people coming for a meal each week but this has risen steadily to 50 or 60, while more than 70 came to the food bank’s Christmas party.
A lot of the regular visitors are elderly people but more recently “it’s mostly younger families”, Oliver says. “And we are running out of food every week.”
The Australian Retailers Association estimates shoppers will be spending about $67bn between November and Christmas Eve. That figure is about equal to last year but a drop in real terms when inflation is factored in.
This rings true for Oliver, who says people have been in contact saying they cannot afford Christmas gifts for their children.
“I try to meet up with them when I can and get them a couple of toys for their kids – and we gave some gifts to the children who came to the Christmas party.
“It breaks my heart, and I try my hardest to help as many people as I can, but I can’t help everybody.”
Zuzana Droppa from the OzHarvest Market food bank in Waterloo has also seen a substantial increase in demand in the past few months.
“We see many first time customers these days as well who are doing it rough, many of whom also have jobs,” Droppa says.
“Lots of young people come through as well – people who are unable to pay their rent or have to make decisions about whether to buy gifts for Christmas or put food on the table.”
Droppa says she has seen a 20% rise in demand for OzHarvest services compared with the same time last year and that people are feeling “desperate”.
“Many still haven’t recovered from the pandemic. Many lost all their savings during the pandemic and it is biting them now.
“They tell us they are struggling with everything – rent, grocery prices, fuel, bills, mortgages. Everything.”
Vinnies says that of the people seeking help from the charity, one in three are doing so for the first time, up from one in four.
Demand for Vinnies services in the first quarter of the new financial year rose by 22% from the same period last year. The charity has already supported 87,000 people in New South Wales over the past year, which is 18% more than 2022.
Vinnies says four in five clients report not having enough food to get by and close to half are facing housing stress.
Ashvini Ambihaipahar, a regional director at Vinnies, says “there are a huge contingent of people struggling with food”.
“That is the No 1 issue. And people are also struggling to purchase things for their children, particularly gifts or toys.
“It is quite dire out there and such a big uptick in demand is putting pressure on lots of organisations. Just trying to keep up, it puts a lot of pressure on services.”
Ambihaipahar says there is a growing contingent of “working poor” couples and singles who have stable jobs but are still unable to afford basic essentials.
“People who are full-time workers and families with dual incomes who are turning to society for support amid this cost of living crisis,” Ambihaipahar says.
“The demand was increasing in the past six months but it has certainly accelerated in the past couple of weeks.”
