Thousands seek aid from Foodbank as lockdowns plunge families into poverty

This Blacktown mum is one of many struggling to pay bills during Covid lockdowns and has reached out to Foodbank for urgent help.

Lockdowns are forcing the pandemic poor to ask for food as charities struggle with soaring demand for help.

Foodbank has a backlog of more than 10,000 requests for food relief in NSW alone, while online searches for financial assistance through Infoxchange have surged 76 per cent in Victoria. 

International students, who rely on casual work and get no welfare payments, have made 20,000 requests for food hampers since the start of the lockdown in Sydney.

Fifty-year-old single mother Clare, from locked-down Bankstown in western Sydney, can barely afford to buy food after losing two of her three part-time jobs, and is selling her own clothing and children’s toys online to raise cash.

Clare, who did not want to be identified, said she had lost part-time work in a factory, and then in a creche inside a gym, as a result of lockdowns and now survives on JobSeeker.

Working part-time for a food charity, she has $200 a week to spend on food, electricity, transport and medical bills after paying $450 a week on her mortgage, which was paused during last year’s lockdown.

“Groceries and petrol have increased so much over the last year, I used to be able to feed us for $50 a week but it is easily double that now,’’ she said.

“I’m trying to find things I can sell in the house - kids’ toys and clothes and personal belongings.’’

Clare takes leftover vegetables from her bare fridge.

Clare and her 10-year-old daughter, who has autism, eat cheap cuts of meat a couple of times a week, and often just steamed potatoes for lunch.

“If I lose another job I don’t know how I’m going to buy potatoes,’’ she said.

Clare, who does not qualify for any federal government disaster payments despite losing work, said she wished people would “stop being so judgemental’’.

“People really need help,’’ she said.

“There are plenty of people who cannot work from home.’’

Australians on social security payments such as JobSeeker do not qualify for any Covid-19 disaster payments, even if they have lost the casual work they relied on to top up welfare payments.

Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) chief executive Cassandra Goldie said charities were struggling with a “huge surge in financial distress’’ among people in lockdowns.

She urged the federal government to lift payments for all people without work to $600 per week, and to reintroduce a targeted JobKeeper payment for industries hardest hit by lockdowns.

“There are now one million people in lockdown receiving social security payments such as JobSeeker or Youth Allowance,’’ she said.

“Many have lost part-time work that they relied on to supplement the paltry social security payments due to the lockdown.’’

Foodbank volunteers Zoe Templeton and Anthony Deamon prepare hampers for the poor. Photo: Annette Dew

Foodbank Australia chief executive Brianna Casey said 10,000 residents were on a waiting list for free food in Sydney, the Central coast and Wollongong, where more than 12,000 hampers had been distributed this month.

“We are seeing a new working poor,’’ she said.

“We have people who have worked really hard all their lives suddenly finding themselves in need of food relief.

“When you are living from paycheck to paycheck, it only takes one missing paycheck before you find yourself in financial distress.

“People are choosing between heating and eating.’’

Ms Casey said single parents, international students, temporary visa holders and welfare recipients – as well as people in quarantine – were all struggling to pay bills as lockdowns stopped them working.

“They’ve had their casual employment dry up,’’ she said.

“We’re seeing a lot of families with young children, and particularly single parent households.

“What breaks my heart is that we find there are mums out there who have waited days because they were so ashamed asking for help to get food for their children.’’

Foodbank is now processing up to 3500 food hampers a day in NSW – as many as it used to process in an entire week before the pandemic hit.

Terese Edwards, CEO, National Council of Single Mothers and their Children, said single parents were overwhelmed with home schooling while trying to earn a living.

Many families left jobless through lockdowns can’t afford to pay basic bills. Photo: iStock

Anti-Poverty Week executive director Toni Wren said one in six Australian children were living in poverty, and families reliant on welfare were struggling with rent, food and home schooling during lockdowns.

“Too many may not even be able to afford the internet access, others may have multiple children sharing a single device,’’ she said.

Justice Connect chief executive Chris Povey said some elderly Australians were suffering abuse in lockdown, and families too poor to pay rent were being evicted into homelessness.

“We see many struggling to pay the rent, unable to put food on the table and missing out on essential health care needs,’’ he said.

Originally published as Thousands seek aid from Foodbank as lockdowns plunge families into poverty