Shift in those doing it tough as cost of living soars

UNIVERSITY students and welfare recipients aren’t the only Sunshine Coast residents struggling to afford living costs.

Supervisor at the Suncoast Care Supermarket in Nambour, Graeme Sutton. The Food Outlet service, which is only available to those who hold a current concession card or can prove low income status, has experienced a 20 percent increase in membership in the past 12 months. Photo: Brett Wortman / Sunshine Coast Daily. Picture: Brett Wortman

UNIVERSITY students and welfare recipients aren't the only Sunshine Coast residents struggling to afford living costs.

Middle-income earners who have overstretched themselves are now lining up for cheap food supplied by charities.

Suncoast Care Food Co-op's discount supermarket in Nambour has seen an increase in membership of more than 20% in the past year. It services 1500 shoppers who buy for about 4200 people every month - and it's increasingly middle-income earners who are searching out the cheapest deal.

Dr Lila Singh-Peterson is a human geographer at Sunshine Coast University and researches the resilience of Coast food systems.

"Definitely, welfare organisations are saying their clientele is shifting," she said. "They're getting more middle-income people, whereas it had been people from lower socio-economic backgrounds and people with disabilities or drug and alcohol problems."

Dr Singh-Peterson said this was because middle-income earners on the Coast were increasingly struggling to afford living costs.

"People are really struggling with mortgages and with unemployment on the Sunshine Coast as our population continues to expand," she said.

"The cost of food is continuing to increase and that's increasing hand in hand with petrol prices as transport costs (go up) as well."

Nambour-based senator James McGrath applauded the work of Suncoast Care, and said high unemployment rates and living costs on the Coast were a concern.

He said the repeal of the carbon tax would help families overcome increasing electricity prices, despite admitting this would remove only $500 from the annual electricity bill, and said the removal of penalty rates in the tourism industry was a priority that could bolster employment.

"Some businesses can't afford to hire people on the weekends because of penalty rates and so the business either doesn't open or family members do the work," he said.

Demand for the discount supermarket Suncoast Care runs had gone through the roof since it opened a year ago, executive manager Stuart Charlton said.

Mr Charlton said while his organisation stopped well short of dumpster-diving to source food to on-sell, the "food rescue" system saved food before it ended up thrown out by supermarkets.

"Supermarkets won't carry it beyond the best-before date but legally you can," said Mr Charlton, who was quick to distinguish between "use-by" dates, which must be adhered to for safety, and "best-before" dates, which are a guideline set by the manufacturer.

Suncoast Care also works with farmers and fruit and vegetable wholesalers to provide cheap, fresh food at high quality.

Originally published as Shift in those doing it tough as cost of living soars