74,000+ Australians turned away from food support every month with frontline charities struggling to cope with rising demand.

Australia’s cost-of-living crisis has become a cost-of-surviving crisis with leading food rescue organisation, OzHarvest revealing more than one in three (36%) of people seeking help are doing so for the first time, including families with a mortgage and double income households.

OzHarvest’s Frontline Report reveals the latest insights into Australia’s food insecurity crisis. The report conducted annually, surveys 1500+ community-based organisations providing food relief, shows a record 350,000 people are seeking support every month, while more than 74,000 are being turned away*.

“Australians are sacrificing buying food just to get by, as stagnant wages, soaring housing costs, energy bills, and a fuel crisis swallow the entire pay cheque. It’s an impossible position for any family to be in,” says OzHarvest founder Ronni Kahn AO.

“Unfortunately, for many households food is the only flexible option in their shrinking budgets. We know right now people are faced with choosing between food and fuel,” she adds.

“Alarmingly, children are now one of the largest groups accessing food relief as they bear the brunt of food insecurity.

“Schools have reported they are increasingly acting as the last safety net that can support children, as they arrive hungry and struggling to learn on empty stomachs. Teachers are buying food for students out of their own pockets,” says Ronni.

Key findings from the report include: 

• More than 74,000+ people turned away from food support every month (1 in 5 people)
• 350,000+ people seeking food support per month
• 36% of people are seeking food relief for the first time including mortgage holders and double income households
• 70% of frontline charities have seen an increase in people seeking support
• Two thirds of charities need more food to meet current demand
• Over 1600 charities are on OzHarvest’s waitlist

*collective number across the 875 charities that responded. If this is extrapolated across all active and waitlisted charities, the number rises to more than 263,000 per month being turned away.

OzHarvest CEO James Goth says that demand spikes for food relief are the canary in the coalmine for household stress, highlighting a broken food system – and that demand has escalated an additional 31% since the beginning of March due to the fuel crisis and supply chain disruptions.

“One in five people are being turned away because the support system is under-resourced. The charities we deliver food to are working hard to support their local communities, but two thirds say they need more to meet demand.

“For the first time in OzHarvest’s history, our waitlist is longer than the list of charities we can currently reach,” says James.

The support system of this frontline network is under immense strain. Charities report that without OzHarvest’s free food delivery, 43% would have to scale back their services while more than half say they would be unable to collect food at all. The regional results revealed Queensland is under the most pressure with combined high rates of demand and more food needed, whilst Tasmania has the highest rate of people seeking help for the first time at 43%.

“The measure of success of a national food strategy should be simple. Are fewer Australian going hungry?”

 

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OzHarvest is calling on federal, state and territory governments to come to the table as the sector faces unprecedented pressure:

– Emergency surge funding to meet this current crisis, as well as long-term funding to ensure that every Australian seeking food relief can receive it.

– Policy change to address the core drivers of food insecurity including income support and housing affordability – as well as targeted support for children through universal school meals and food literacy education.

As the Federal Government develops Australia’s first-ever National Food Security Strategy, OzHarvest is urging that families do not get left behind.

“The measure of success of a national food strategy should be simple. Are fewer Australians going hungry?” says OzHarvest CEO James Goth.

Download the Report

Media Contact:
Fiona Nearn | National Brand & Comms Lead OzHarvest | [email protected] | 0405 588186

Andrew Arthur | In The Media | [email protected] | 0423 218415