A proud single mum going hungry to feed her sons

Right now, with the cost-of-living crisis continuing to push household costs through the roof, hardworking mums like Sheryl need your help more than ever.

Latest figures show that households with children are being hit hard by the hunger problem sweeping our state. And it’s single-parent families who are feeling the pressure most of all. Sadly, as many as 37% of single parent families are going hungry, sometimes going whole days without eating.

Sheryl* knows exactly how hard things have become. She does everything she can to provide for her three growing sons. But, as a single mum, it’s not easy. Especially not right now.

Spiralling fuel and grocery prices mean that, after she’s paid the bills and filled the car with petrol to get to work, there’s not enough left over for her whole family to eat properly.

Up until now, she’s managed to put food on the table. But, like so many other hard-working parents, she’s been secretly skipping meals to make sure there’s enough for her kids.

“Some weeks, I might only have one or two evening meals. That way, I have more meat and vegetables and things like that for the boys. You 100% go without so that you know you’ve got things for your children.” – Sheryl

It’s what any mum would do to make sure her kids have what they need to grow up healthy and strong. But, with the cost-of-living crisis set to get even worse this year – and groceries getting even more expensive – Sheryl’s now incredibly worried about the future.

What’s worse, for many parents like Sheryl, the guilt and shame of not being able to provide for their kids stops them asking for help.

As food prices soar, there are more and more families on the edge of requiring assistance. We know from bitter experience that the number of people needing help to put food on the table is about to skyrocket. We need to be ready.

Sheryl is just one of thousands of parents who are faking a smile for their kids. She’s trying to raise three boys – 15-year-old Sean*, 13-year-old Connor* and 8-year-old Callum*. She works all the hours she can, juggling a 9 to 5 job with the pressures of being a full-time mum. But, on a single income, it’s a major challenge to give the boys everything they need. And, as anyone who’s ever lived with teenagers will understand, providing enough food for fast-growing kids is one of the biggest challenges of all.

“It’s nothing for them to do a loaf of bread, if not two loaves of bread in a day. I’m just constantly talking to the kids about, ‘Food’s got to last.’ I’ve even said to them, ‘I’m going to have to start putting food away and drip-feed it to you.’” – Sheryl

Sheryl wishes she had a pantry full of fresh, nutritious food for the boys to enjoy. It breaks her heart when she has to limit what they can eat. But, with the price of food going through the roof, she just doesn’t have any choice.

“We really need to make the food that I purchase last, because there’s just not the money there to continually go out and replace it.” – Sheryl

Like so many parents pushed to the very edge, Sheryl’s found out that the family is only ever one unexpected expense away from a financial crisis.

“I had some big maintenance happen around the house. Hot water service and things like that. That took the savings. Then there’s back-to-school. You have three kids needing two pairs of shoes each. I’m not going to send my kids to school with bare feet, but that’s a massive chunk of money that we just don’t have.” – Sheryl

No parent should ever be put in this awful situation. Sheryl’s situation got so bad that she started going without food so that there was more for her boys. It’s something we’ve been hearing a lot of lately. More and more desperate parents are going from worrying about food to reducing meal sizes – and finally cutting out meals altogether.

Sheryl managed to hide from her children that she was missing meals – but she couldn’t keep it secret forever.

“My really close girlfriend who I work with realised something was up by noticing I wasn’t eating at work. She would make me call in and get leftovers from her family meals and she delivered some groceries to my front door.” – Sheryl

That’s when Sheryl realised things couldn’t go on the way they were: “I needed to put my hand up and say that, ‘Hey, I was struggling.’”

Your generosity can provide fresh food and pantry staples for so many struggling families like Sheryl’s. She’s optimistic about the future and hopes she’ll get a promotion at work, which will help to ease the strain. In the meantime, she knows just how much of a difference your contribution could make.

“Your generosity can help a family that is really, really trying to do everything they can every single day just to keep their head above water.” – Sheryl

Every $1 you donate provides two nutritious meals to someone facing hunger like Sheryl.

*Sheryl is a real Aussie in need. Names have been changed to protect privacy.

How your flood donation has helped – 1 year on!

The 2022 Queensland floods were some of the worst floods Queensland has seen in modern times – leaving thousands in our community displaced, without electricity and without food or water.

A year ago, we asked for your help with a simple proposition: to get as much food and fresh drinking water as possible to those in need, and you answered the call. Thank you for being there for your community in such a time of need.

Thanks to your generosity, in the last 12 months, enough food was distributed for over 412,000 meals to flood affected communities seeking help. Thank you for the vital role you played in this remarkable feat. Knowing where their next meal is coming from can have such an impact on those dealing with the lasting effects of the floods.

At the time of the floods, we shared stories from some of Foodbank Queensland’s incredible Member Charities, including Victory Church Care Services. You may remember the devastating images of their food relief facility in disarray, where fresh produce was lining the ceiling after flood waters filled the entire building.

Victory Care Services Manager Ray Hill relayed how your support helped, and continues to help, the Gympie community:

“Our Victory Care Service in Gympie, which provides food for 120 families every week, went under water in the biggest flood in 120 years. Like many families in the town, we lost everything except our building. The community rallied around us and after a couple of months and a lot of hard work and donations, we were up and running again. Our Victory Care Service was missed and was welcomed back by a grateful community. We thank the community for their support and also Foodbank for their generosity with the supply of food donations, contributing to our ongoing service in the community. I thank all involved.”

This is just one of the hundreds of stories from communities you’ve helped by standing by them during their time of need.

By pitching in and donating to get food to where it was needed most, you gave hope to communities who had lost everything. While the floods can cause devastation in only minutes, hours and days, the road to recovery can take years, with many families still rebuilding what they lost. That’s why, with your support, Foodbank Queensland continues to work hard to support these impacted communities.

Foodbank Queensland is putting your donations to work every day, serving the community now and preparing for a more sustainable future. We truly couldn’t feed so many Queenslanders in need without you.

If you are in a position to help Foodbank Queensland on an ongoing basis to provide more food across the state to support Queenslanders in need, please consider joining the fight against hunger as a regular giver.

Wesley Mission Queensland provides vital food relief to the Brisbane community

Wesley Mission Queensland has been a Foodbank Member Charity for more than 12 years and is a vital crisis and emergency relief provider in Queensland. At their Brisbane Relief Hub, Wesley Mission Queensland provides food to over 500 people each week through their Emergency Relief and Community Meal Programs to support people facing hardship.

The Emergency Relief Program provides Queenslanders in need with free food hampers, and week-day snack packs. On Tuesdays the team provide a barbeque burger, either chicken, beef or vegetarian, and with all the extras.

The Wesley Mission Queensland team recently shared this story of hardship from one of their visitors to the Emergency Relief Program.

“The financial situation I was in made me make a choice between buying my heart medication that keeps me alive or buying food – I didn’t have enough money to do both, so I went hungry for a while, then I found out about Emergency Relief food hampers, thank you.” – Anonymous

The Community Meal Program offers a nutritious two course meal three times a week, every week, even on Public Holidays. On Wednesday night dinners, people can choose to dine in and eat with other members of the community.

“The Community Meal service is important to people not only experiencing hunger, but for those experiencing loneliness. To have a full tummy, connect with others and feel part of a community, is vital both physically and mentally to a person’s overall wellbeing.”  – Penny, Crisis and Emergency Relief Manager at Wesley Mission Queensland’s Brisbane Relief Hub

At Christmas, Wesley Mission Queensland noticed an increase in need, with a lot of new families coming to the Brisbane Relief Hub for help due to the rising cost of food, utility bills and rental costs, all of which are having noticeable effects on people from all areas of Brisbane.

This Christmas, Wesley Mission Queensland was able to give 1,738 people in need a Wesley Mission Red Bag full of food they could enjoy over the Christmas period.

“Community Meal Christmas Day Lunch this year brought a further 215 visitors to our service for a three course Christmas Day meal.” – Penny

To all of our wonderful donors, Penny and the team at the Brisbane Relief Hub say a big thank you!

“We go to Foodbank every week, sometimes twice a week! Foodbank for us is crucial in allowing us to continue to provide food to those in need. There is a real need out there and even more so now with the rising costs of essentials.

“A huge thank you to the wonderful team at Foodbank for providing us with the means to be able to continue to feed the people who need it the most and also for your wonderful support volunteering at our Tuesday barbeques.” – Penny

Your generosity helps Foodbank provide emergency food and groceries to frontline charities across the state, like Wesley Mission Queensland, to help local families get back on their feet.

Every $1 you donate provides two nutritious meals to someone facing hunger. Thank you for making a difference.

If you are a Queensland charity, Foodbank Queensland membership is a great way to support your food relief projects, offering your organisation a reliable source of food and groceries all year round. 

If you are in a position to help Foodbank Queensland provide more food across the state to support Queenslanders in need, please consider joining the fight against hunger as a regular giver.

Thanks to you, Jade could put food on the table for her family at Christmas

Jade never thought she’d end up in this situation. Up until now, Jade and her family have coped. She and her partner have always worked hard to raise their family. In fact, right now, she’s back at work with a five-month-old baby, trying to make ends meet. At times, it hasn’t been easy, but they’ve always found a way.

“We’ve always just managed to scrape through and get by. There’s been times when we’ve had to put off a bill and make up for it the next month. But the kids have never gone without. They’ve always had food on the table.” – Jade

Over the last 10 years, Jade has turned to Foodbank for support in the lean times. With our help – and thanks to your kindness – she’s always been able to feed her children. But it hasn’t always been easy. At times, she hasn’t been able to give them as much fresh fruit and vegetables as she’d like. Sometimes she’s even had to go without herself to make sure there’s enough for the little ones. The children have always come first.

The fact that, up until now, Jade has managed to keep her children healthy and well-fed is something she’s rightly proud of.

On top of all the everyday costs of raising a young family, she’s had to work especially hard to pay for the hugely expensive medication and medical care her 14-year old daughter, Sarah, needs to stay alive.

Sarah has juvenile arthritis, which affects her lungs. She also has serious allergies. For years, Jade has had to find extra money to pay for the life-saving care she needs. It’s been a huge financial burden on the family.

“The immunotherapy Sarah needs costs about $250 every two months. For that, we have to take her to hospital in town. Each trip costs at least another few hundred dollars when you add up the petrol and paying for parking.” – Jade

Obviously, as a loving parent, Jade has always made covering these costs a priority. Her daughter’s life depends on it. And, thanks to the support she’s had from Foodbank Queensland – and your generosity – she’s thankfully never had to made the impossible choice between feeding her children and paying for Sarah’s medical attention.

But now the cost-of-living crisis that is affecting so many hard-working families is making it harder than ever. When money is tight and there are essential bills to be paid, too many families are making the agonising decision to cut back on food.

“Our groceries have gone up. And our electricity, too. We do try and give our kids everything but the rise in the everyday cost of living is really affecting us.” – Jade

Jade’s finances are stretched beyond breaking point. And that meant sacrifices needed to be made at Christmas.

Christmas should be a time for fun and relaxation. A time for family. And a time for Christmas dinner, the most special meal of the year. But, this Christmas, thousands of families like Jade’s across Queensland struggled to put a meal on the table of Christmas Day.

When we spoke to Jade in the lead up to Christmas, she told us: “It’s always a little bit stressful because you always want Christmas to be amazing for the kids. But, with all the costs going up, we’re just not sure what Christmas is going to look like this year.” – Jade

But the good news is that, with your help, Foodbank Queensland was able to give food and hope to families like Jade’s. Working closely with farmers, wholesalers, manufacturers and retailers – and with your kind support – we are able to source healthy, nutritious food that can turn hunger into happiness.

Over the years, while doing everything she possibly can to pay her daughter’s medical costs and make ends meet, this hard-working mum has had no choice but to visit her local Foodbank Member Charity for help.

“Foodbank definitely makes a huge difference for the kids. I try and get our staples like rice, pasta, baked beans, Weet-Bix, and then I can budget around that. It means, when things are tough, and the medical bills are a bit more, I can cover that without any of the kids having to go without.” – Jade

Jade knows just what a blessing food can be, and how much it improves the health and happiness of the whole family.

“It really, really does make a difference. If it wasn’t for Foodbank, we would definitely be missing out on a lot. Fresh food is so expensive at the moment, I wouldn’t be giving the kids as much fresh stuff. I just wouldn’t be able to afford it if it wasn’t for Foodbank.” – Jade

Your kindness helped make sure that hard-working families like Jade’s didn’t have to go without at Christmas.

Every $1 you donate provides two nutritious meals to someone facing hunger like Jade.

“They’ve got nowhere to go and they’re hungry. We’ve never seen a crisis like this.”

What happens when a community already more disadvantaged than most is hit by a natural disaster? In this story from the frontline, Silvana, a volunteer cook from one of Foodbank’s Member Charities, shares her reflections on her town’s worst crisis in living memory.

When devastating floods hit Caboolture, many people were already barely keeping afloat. There was the rising cost of living, along with job losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Rent and house prices had also skyrocketed, even pushing some people into homelessness.

Silvana is a volunteer cook at Foodbank’s Member Charity, Caboolture Community Action. Before the floods, up to 200 people living with disadvantage would come to her for free hot meals every week to keep their hunger at bay. She and the other volunteers would also pack and deliver hampers to families struggling to keep food on the table.

When the flood came, it amplified the adversity like never before. The flood waters damaged homes and threatened lives. And after the water receded, many people discovered their homes were now inhabitable. All their possessions – including food – had been destroyed. Few people were left untouched.

“The floods have affected people from all walks of life. We’ve had people coming to us hungry who were well off before. One lovely family came in after the floods. The mum and dad had jobs and the kids were doing well in school. But they’d lost everything and were now living in their car.” – Silvana

To make things worse, the charity’s op shop that helps fund the food and essentials, had flooded. It had to close, so there was little money to run the food service.

“People were coming to us saying ‘I’m hungry. I haven’t eaten today. I haven’t had a hot meal. Could you please heat us something up?’ It was heartbreaking.” – Silvana

At this overwhelming time, a lifeline came. Because of your generous donations to the Foodbank Queensland Flood Appeal, we were able to provide Caboolture Community Action with additional emergency food. It was such a relief for Silvana and her colleagues to know they could keep those people most in need fed, so they could focus on the mop up and rebuilding their lives.

Foodbank provided Silvana and the team with key staples like rice, pasta, baked beans and other canned foods and UHT milk, as well as ready-to-eat frozen casseroles and curries for flood-affected locals to microwave and eat at their emergency accommodation. Caboolture Community Action were now able to pack more crisis hampers, which people gratefully received.

“It’s a sad and happy time. Sad because these people were already struggling to pay the rent, and now they’ve lost everything, including their furniture and bedding. But happy because we are able to go out and provide some comfort, giving them hot meals, a hamper, a hug and a conversation.” – Silvana

Silvana wants Foodbank’s supports to know how thankful the Caboolture Community Action team are of the support provided to their community when it was severely impacted by flooding.

“Caboolture Community Action began as a small barbeque in the park for the homeless and now we are providing over 20,000 meals and hampers a year. I feel grateful, thankful and blessed that Foodbank’s donors are helping us support our fellow community members who are living with severe hardship.” – Silvana

Your generosity helps Foodbank provide emergency food and groceries to frontline charities across the state, like Caboolture Community Action, to help local families get back on their feet.

Every $1 you donate provides two nutritious meals to someone facing hunger. Thank you for making a difference.

If you are a Queensland charity,  Foodbank Queensland membership is a great way to support your food relief projects, offering your organisation a reliable source of food and groceries all year round.

If you are in a position to help Foodbank Queensland provide more food across the state to support Queenslanders in need, please consider joining the fight against hunger as a regular giver.

Sunny Queen Eggs are feeding hungry Aussies!

We are so egg-cited to see these purple eggs in store! Foodbank’s valued partner, Sunny Queen Australia, has launched an incredible initiative in support of Foodbanks across the country to feed families in need. Reach for a purple Sunny Queen egg carton on your next grocery shop and feel egg-cellent about supporting families who need a helping hand.

“These purple egg cartons strengthen Sunny Queen’s long history of supporting the wonderful work Foodbank does. Unfortunately for many Australian families, stretching the weekly income so that they are able to buy enough food to properly feed everyone in their household is getting much tougher with rising costs of living. Sunny Queen is proud to support Foodbank in the fight against hunger. Our new egg pack is another way we can work together to support families in need. – Sunny Queen’s GM of Marketing, Isabelle Dench.

This cause-related campaign is an eggs-tension of Sunny Queen’s year-round support, which sees Australia’s most-loved egg brand donate around 1,000 eggs per day to Foodbank. In less than eight weeks, more than 240,000 egg packs have been sold in support of Foodbank. What an incredible community achievement! We couldn’t do what we do without our wonderful supporters. Thank you to everyone who has bought a purple egg pack since the launch. If you haven’t yet, there is still time with the campaign running until December 2022.

Read more about Sunny Queen here: www.sunnyqueen.com.au

Thanks to Foodbank Supporters, this struggling mum received a knock on the door that changed everything. 

The scary truth is it only takes one setback to push a person into the nightmare of hunger…  It happened to Queensland mum Anne. She had a stable job and had so many plans for her young children.

Through no fault of her own, Anne was pushed below the poverty line after suffering a serious injury and was forced to skip meals to make ends meet. The young mum suffered the loss of her speech and ability to walk. With no means of income and only a small disability pension, it was often only enough to pay for her therapy and medications.

Whenever she could, Anne scraped together enough for noodles, Weet-Bix, or bananas. Many times though, she’d simply go to bed early to avoid the burning hunger or drink warm water to fill herself up. Not having enough to eat made Anne feel worthless.

“Sometimes I wouldn’t eat for days, as I wanted to save what little bit of money I had left, to provide for my kids during their visits. I was often starving, but my babies would always be happy, so I decided it was worth it.” – Anne

Thanks to generous supporters like you, Anne received a knock on the door that changed everything. A food hamper was placed in her arms.

“It was overwhelming. In the hamper was everything to stock my pantry full. Things like flour, sugar, cereal, spaghetti, and tinned goods. Thinking about it still makes me smile.” – Anne

As the cost of living continues to rise, more and more Queensland families like Anne’s are experiencing desperate hardship and are struggling to put food on the table. We need your help to get food to families like Anne’s who need it most.

“Getting help to feed myself has made me realise good people are out there. Some of the nicest ones are strangers who support the work of Foodbank. It feels so good to be able to eat. Thank you!” – Anne

Every $1 you donate will provide two nutritious meals to someone facing hunger like Anne.

*This is a real Queensland story of hardship. Anne’s name is changed to her protect identity.