Rising interest rates, cost of living pressures pushing Victorians towards emergency food banks
Financially secure families across Geelong are beginning to buckle under rising cost of living pressures, with demand for emergency relief now extending beyond low income earners.
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Being able to access affordable food, when times are particularly tough, literally lights up the face of Geelong West resident Nat Russell.
The bubbly 42-year-old calls on the services of Geelong Food Relief Centre a couple of times a year in order to keep the grumbles of an empty stomach at bay.
“When I have no food at home and I definitely don’t have any money on me, I come in,” she said.
“I really appreciate the service, they have everything I like here.
“If I was to get the same amount of food at the supermarket it would cost ten times as much.”
Ms Russell, who is on a disability benefit, also works two days a week for Gen U packaging and delivering fresh milk at Work Safe.
But GFRC executive assistant, Helen Nihill, said it wasn’t just those on government payments or welfare walking through their doors.
Rising interest rates and cost of living pressures are beginning to cripple previously financially secure families across Geelong, with demand for emergency relief now extending beyond very low income earners.
“We had an international pilot in here who lost his job,” she said.
“He was living the good life and had a house and a car, and it all just went overnight.
“Some of the people coming through never would have thought they would need us.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by other emergency relief organisations across the state.
Give Where You Live Foundation chief executive officer, Bill Mithen, said inflation and ballooning mortgage repayments was pushing some to the brink in a similar way the onset of the global pandemic did, when many family businesses went bust.
“What we are seeing at the moment is there are people who are not necessarily on low incomes but have no real choice but to seek out support and help from emergency food services,” he said.
“During the peak of Covid there were people who were typically ok as far as employment and financial security suddenly becoming financially insecure.
“Those people were using us then, and there is a similarity now with the rising cost of living.”
GFRC boss Andrew Schauble said demand “was spiking”, with five of his food vans delivering bulk goods to Geelong, Bellarine, Surf Coast and across the state.
They run two mini marts at North Geelong and the CBD, where a $1 token can buy the equivalent of $15 worth of meat at a major supermarket.
“It‘s a big operation, and at this time of the year the demand is off the charts,” he said.
“It’s amazing the different people you see walk in, from all walks of life.
“We want to create an atmosphere that is similar to a normal supermarket that encourages anyone that needs us to come in.”
Mr Mithen said the need for products was “already high” but tended to explode at Christmas.
“There is more pressure on families at this time of the year to do things for their children, presents and parties,” he said.
“We are spiking from what was a low base a couple of years ago to a high base.”
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Originally published as Rising interest rates, cost of living pressures pushing Victorians towards emergency food banks
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