YOUR KINDNESS IS SUPPORTING THE BUSHFIRE RECOVERY

On behalf of the community of Kiah – and so many other communities across NSW and ACT – thank you for your wonderful support throughout the bushfire crisis earlier this year.

Phillip Novak was one of the RFS fire fighters on the front line in the NSW South Coast town of Kiah, trying to save homes and lives. Like far too many Australians caught up in this summer’s devasting fires Phillip lost his own home, and only just escaped with his life.

“In just half a minute, the structures I was protecting were enveloped in flames. It was a tempest of just unimaginable proportions,” said Phillip.

The day after the fire took his home, Phillip had help from Foodbank. “It was just chaos. Smoke was still in the air and we were just reaching out to get basic assistance. The food pantry at Merimbula was the first place that helped us,” he said.

As you would expect the road to recovery for these communities will be long. Communities just like Kiah are reliant on continuing food relief and families like Phillip’s still benefit from your kindness. In March alone, 473,000 kilos of food and groceries were delivered to bushfire affected areas.

As Phillip explains, “We’re all having difficulty with just day to day living – we’ve lost the things that make a home.

“Simple things like receiving food is an important part of rebuilding our lives.”

THANK YOU FOR HELPING FEED KYLIE’S FAMILY

“When you’re fighting between paying rent or buying food, you don’t know what to do.”

When we last wrote to you, Kylie and her young children, like so many thousands of other Australian families, had reached breaking point.

Thanks to your generous support, Foodbank has stepped in to relieve their distress and hunger.

Without you, Kylie and her kids would have gone hungry.

For Kylie, not being able to feed her own children was heart-breaking. “You have to send your kids to school with food. You can’t send them with nothing.

“A neighbour told me about the Foodbank charity partner pantry. They were the most welcoming bunch of ladies, able to help us when we needed it.

“I was blown away with the generosity, and what we’ve received with everyone’s help.

“To go home with this food… it means I don’t have to sit and cry about not having any money or food. We can now eat – and that’s the most important thing to me, for my kids.”

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INCONCEIVABLE IMPACT – AND A DESPERATE NEED

Supporting communities after the devastating bushfires was always going to be a challenge. But when COVID-19 hit, the challenge was more than doubled.

“We have witnessed a 50% increase in demand for food relief, while simultaneously our volunteer work force was more than halved overnight. At least 25% of our charity partners closed down,” said CEO Gerry Andersen.

“We now face the future with 2 in 5 people experiencing food insecurity – a shocking toll caused by recent events.

“Meeting need is always a complex process. We need to know that our response will pass the test of time to get through not only the crisis phase, but also the lengthy recovery phase.”

The future is uncertain. But what we know for sure is that bushfire affected communities will need support for many months to come. Foodbank is committed to helping vulnerable Australians in need, and we are so grateful for your support.

Thanks to your kindness Foodbank can be to help hungry Australians.

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WE ASKED, YOU RESPONDED – THANK YOU

We were overwhelmed by your incredible response to our appeal in the aftermath of COVID-19.

In the space of one week, Foodbank received a 50% increase in demand for food relief. Prior to this, thousands of people were already missing out – we did not have enough for more than 373,000 people in NSW and ACT who needed urgent hunger relief. Now we are facing a whole new hunger crisis on an unprecedented scale.

Our first action in the response plan was to escalate the sourcing, packing and delivering food hampers to unprecedented levels. To achieve this, we needed to source more food urgently, as panic buying had stripped shelves bare. We also had to employ emergency labour, as our volunteer workforce was significantly impacted by COVID-19. The people we could normally call upon were unavailable – working from home, laid off or in isolation.

Thanks to you, in a short space of time, we have been able to help so many Australians. We have packed and distributed 9,800 hampers – that’s around 118 tonnes of product.

Foodbank will continue to pack hampers to meet demand, and for as long as is needed. This is an ongoing crisis with an uncertain future.

We are so grateful for your continued support in putting food on the table for hungry Australians.

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COVID-19 UPDATE

THE LONG ROAD AHEAD

Even though restrictions have eased, the COVID-19 nightmare continues for many people impacted by job losses and increased hardship. Australia is now in its first recession in 29 years. The staggering 50% increase in demand for food relief in recent months does not seem likely to decline any time soon.

Charity Partner Lana Borg from Mama Lana’s says that currently between 80 to 100 people seek their help each night. Linda Strickland of Hawkesbury Helping Hands has witnessed a leap from 300-400 to over 2,000 people a week at their centre for food relief. “The Salvation Army came from Katoomba to pick up food; 90% of the guys up there have lost their jobs. Most of the stories are heart breaking and many days I can hardly hold it together.” she said.

Paul joined Foodbank as a volunteer after losing his corporate job because he wanted to have ‘a purpose’. He confided that after giving his time at Foodbank and witnessing the scale of the food relief operation that “the number of people that need this type of help is frightening.”

“Foodbank has been involved in disaster response and recovery for decades; cyclones, floods and, of course, the unprecedented bushfires last summer. We know recovery takes months, even years,” said CEO Gerry Andersen.

Thanks to your support, Foodbank can be there for the thousands of Australians who continue to need our help. Thank you.

COVID-19 Stories

We asked, you responded – thank you

Inconceivable impact and a desperate need

Thank you for helping feed Kylie’s family

The Worst Hunger Crisis in Generations

During the Great Depression, parents would often starve themselves so their children could eat.

Today, it’s happening again.

COVID-19 has shattered livelihoods, inflicting hunger on thousands of Australian families for the first time.

At Foodbank, this is the most substantial and sustained demand we’ve ever faced, and it’s a constant battle to help everyone who needs us.

Before the COVID-19 emergency even began 1 in 5 Australians already lived with food insecurity. Now, thanks to crushing job losses, that number has doubled. 2 in 5 Australian families now struggle to feed their children.

Every day, Foodbank hears more and more stories of parents skipping meals so their children can eat.

One of these parents is Brendan, a 43-year-old father of four who is currently out of work.

“I’ve worked every day since I was 14,” Brendan told us, the anguish clear in his voice. “I never thought this would happen to us. I’m applying for jobs right now, but I feel a lot of shame right now because I can’t provide.”

The problem may seem so big you may ask yourself, “What can I possibly do?”. But now more than ever before, the power is in your hands.

Every $1 you donate provides $6 of food for families in crisis. Every $1 means the difference between parents being able to feed their children, or not.

Hundreds of thousands of Australians are still out of work – and Government assistance measures won’t last forever. How will these families feed their kids then?

Help your fellow Australians and their children escape the worst hunger crisis since the Great Depression.

Glasshouse yields over 58 tonnes of donations to Foodbank

Foodbank NSW & ACT is proud to announce University of Western Sydney’s National Vegetable Protected Cropping Centre (NVPCC) has joined the fight against hunger!

The world-class education and research facility for Australia’s protected cropping specialists, the glasshouse has produced a stunning quantity of more than 58,000 kilograms of fresh produce from production and research trials. Produce like capsicums, cucumbers and eggplants have been donated to Foodbank to support families in need. This donation is more important now than ever before as the COVID-19 crisis hits our communities.

“The NVPCC glasshouse delivers high-quality research outcomes that improve Australia’s ability to produce food crops in advanced protected cropping systems,” said Distinguished Professor David Tissue.

Foodbank receives several full crates of fresh produce from NVPCC each week. With the help of Foodbank volunteers and charity partners, this produce is distributed to vulnerable Australians across NSW and the ACT.

Foodbank NSW & ACT CEO Gerry Andersen says “the demand has increased massively by almost 50% and yet 25% of the food coming into our warehouses has dropped because demand is so great in the supermarkets.”

“This means that the productive capability of Western Sydney University’s experimental glasshouse trials is of even greater benefit to us given the extraordinary effects of rising unemployment, the effects of summer fires and drought on food prices, and the impacts from COVID-19 on home food consumption. This donation will help Foodbank feed vulnerable Australians with nutritious produce during this difficult time” said Mr Andersen.

For more information on the NVPCC glasshouse, please visit: www.westernsydney.edu.au/nvpcc.

FOODBANK NSW & ACT WELCOMES THE NSW GOVERNMENT’S ANNOUNCEMENT OF $2 MILLION FOR COVID-19 EMERGENCY FOOD RELIEF

Friday 27 March, 2020 – The NSW Government announced today a commitment of $2 million to help Foodbank NSW & ACT (FBNA) build capacity and scale for emergency food and grocery relief efforts.

This is in addition to the $8 million allocated in the 2019-20 budget that is provided over 4 years to allow FBNA to expand the School Breakfast 4 Health program to an additional 500 schools.

As the largest and most trusted food relief charity in the state, FBNA already provides food relief to 1,012 charity and school partners, assisting 373,173 Aussies a month, during normal times. These are no longer normal times and the demand for food assistance is rising at a rate never before seen.

The NSW Government’s emergency food relief funding will help FBNA scale up immediately to respond to the unprecedented increase in the number of Australians looking for help.

FBNA CEO, Gerry Andersen, says: “Foodbank is here for the long haul to help vulnerable Aussies access food and groceries, no matter what the crisis. COVID-19, and the resulting mass unemployment across the country, is placing a huge strain on the Foodbank network.

“We are grateful for the NSW Government’s help now more than ever. Together, we’ll make sure no Australians get left behind.”

FBNA COO, John Robertson, says: “We know people are already doing it tough and our charity partners are under pressure. As you saw during the bushfire crisis, FBNA is well-placed to assist vulnerable people in our state. In partnership with the NSW Government – we’re not going to falter and we’ll leave no one behind, as we’ve been doing for the past 27 years.”

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Media Enquiries

Janene Manwaring
Foodbank NSW & ACT
M +61 474 741 413
E Janene@foodbanknsw.org.au

THANKS TO YOU, THE RECOVERY HAS BEGUN

Thanks to the heartfelt generosity of people like you, Foodbank has been there to support and comfort Australians as they navigate the devastating aftermath of the bushfire crisis. Your support, through volunteering, donating essential supplies or via a financial donation, has enabled Foodbank to work quickly to help those who needed it most.

As part of the official emergency response network, our primary focus throughout the crisis has been to deliver exactly what is needed, when and where it’s needed in order to efficiently and effectively support the relief efforts.

Together, since the beginning of January, we have been able to answer the desperate call for help and our emergency response relief efforts included:

9 semi-trailers sent to the South Coast NSW (places like Cobargo, Narooma, Bega, Bermagui, Eden, Womboyn)
Over 1,000 pallets (approx 435, 943 kilos) of food, groceries, fresh produce, personal hygiene items and pet food have been distributed
Over 30,000 kilos of carrots and sweet potatoes have been flown by helicopter into NSW national parks for Australia’s endangered native animals.

These devastating bushfires have left people all over our state in need of our continued support. We can only be there for them because of supporters like you – thank you.

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