Middle class Victorians make up changing ‘face of hunger’ amid cost-of-living crisis

Working Victorian families are becoming increasingly anxious about putting enough food on the table and are joining queues of Australians who rely on food donations as everyday costs soar.

A growing number of working families are joining queues of hungry Australians relying on food donations during the cost of living crisis.
Foodbank Australia, whose latest snapshot of need shows 3.7 million households struggled to put food on the table last year, says many households with mums and dads working at least one job are now in food stress.

The alarming trend comes as new research shows a quarter of Australians are anxious about putting enough food on the table.

The CEO of Foodbank in Victoria David McNamara says 65,000 meals a day are now distributed by the organisation. Picture: David Caird

The CEO of Foodbank in Victoria David McNamara said 65,000 meals a day were now distributed by the organisation, and that the volunteers on the ground had seen a changing face of hunger during the cost of living crisis.

“The middle class, what we all aspire to be, are the ones feeling this impact,” he said. “We have got mums and dads working two jobs to put families first and to put food on the table, and unfortunately they are putting themselves to bed without food, they’re sending their kids to bed without food – and that’s not our society, that’s not who we think we are.

“This is an uncomfortable conversation to have but there are far too many of us going hungry. That’s now something we have assigned Australia to be, a hungry country; we are a lucky country, let’s make us lucky again.”

David McNamara says the volunteers on the ground have seen a changing face of hunger during the cost of living crisis. Picture: Luis Enrique Ascui

Mr McNamara issued the warning at a Foodbank event to recognise its partnership with global yoghurt giant Chobani, which is donating the equivalent of six meals for every tub of its family-sized yoghurt tubs sold.

He called for more corporate philanthropy to support organisations feeding the growing queues of needy households, because the current crisis would take years from which to recover.

Celebrity chef Karen Martini, who recently took over the St Kilda icon the Saint Hotel, says the ‘changing face of hunger’ is now at crisis level.

Chobani general manager Tim Browne said the company was keen to support organisations such as Foodbank to “address food insecurity head-on”.

Research, commissioned by Chobani, of more than 6800 Australians, shows 24 per cent of people feel “stressed or anxious about having enough food on the table”.
When asked whether their food security has “improved, worsened or stayed the same over the past year”, 48 per cent said their food security had worsened.

Celebrity chef Karen Martini, who recently took over the St Kilda icon the Saint Hotel, said the “changing face of hunger” would surprise many and was now at crisis level.

“It could be people who are employed but are still struggling at the moment because times are tough,” she said.