Struggling Auckland foodbanks fear turning families away as funding dries up

Struggling foodbanks fear they could be forced to turn away families in need, as the South Auckland Buttabean Motivation foodbank run by David Letele prepares to close.

Letele announced on Thursday that the foodbank, which started during the Covid pandemic, would have to close by Christmas.

He said the $87,500 in government support it received this year was not enough to meet demand from hundreds of families needing help every week.

Auckland City Missioner Helen Robinson said the demand for food did not disappear when food banks like Letele's were forced to close.

"There is a great need in our community for food relief services - so we know that one in five of us today don't have enough money for food. So that's literally mothers, fathers, children who are going without food, and enough good food, every day."

The City Mission works with three marae in South Auckland - Māngere, Papakura, and Ngā Whare Waatea.

Earlier this year, it received $75,000 in one-off government support after calls to fund food security in the budget - but Robinson said the foodbank really needed a grant of $1.5 million.

The latest government boost meant the foodbank could provide 50,000 parcels a year - but only until Christmas.

"Without any government support in any one year, we can only give out 20,000 food parcels, so it is a reduction by three-fifths, literally," Robinson said.

"Come 1 January, we have a very significant problem, which is totally inadequate funding to meet the demand for food that we are seeing."

Robinson was concerned about where the "thousands and thousands" of people who needed food relief would go, if not the City Mission.

"The current demand is more than any one organisation or service can provide, and really it's at such a scale that we really need the government to step in to provide funding."

St Vincent du Paul Society operates foodbanks in central and South Auckland.

General manager Delphina Soti said its one-off government grant would have to stretch until June 2025.

"For us, it covers around about 20-25 percent of what we're doing. We're grateful for it, but it still doesn't acknowledge the seriousness of this problem."

She said St Vincent du Paul supported about 350 households a week - many of them referred from government services.

She said the pressure this year had been "significant".

"We're really feeling the pinch this time, trying to see where we can cut - our organisation really doesn't want to cap, so there's a lot of work going into philanthropy and trying to fundraise, but there's just not enough."

That demand was much higher than before the pandemic, she said.

"People that are coming in are really looking for relief - they're not looking for a long-term solution, it's short-term just to get over a few bumps, just to make ends meet.

"It's double, and sometimes it goes over 300 percent, to what it was before Covid."

Debbie Munroe runs Waka of Caring in Manurewa. She too had found that demand for food parcels had doubled recently.

"A year ago I would say that we're hitting between 100 and 120 families per day. In the last six months, we are up to 250, to 285."

Monroe said even working families were seeking help from the foodbank when they did not meet the criteria for other services.

Waka of Caring also received government funding this year, but Munroe said it would not last for long.

"We would spend a good $5000 - $6000 a week, and that's just buying the basics."

She said the community stepped up when she put the call out - even taking to Facebook when there was not not enough food to go around.

"It's hard to explain, going into the foodbank and going, 'I've got no food', and honestly within an hour we've got food coming in. We are really, really lucky that we can continue doing that many food parcels, with the way things are going."

On Thursday, Finance Minister Nicola Willis said she was saddened to hear Letele was closing down his foodbank, but insisted the government was supporting people in hardship.

At the same time, she pointed to the government books which showed a deficit of $12.9 billion to the year ended June.

"The government invests significantly through the welfare system to make sure that those who are without jobs or income are supported by fellow New Zealanders. We also make hardship grants available for those who find themselves in particularly challenging circumstances, and we do provide a quantum of funding for food networks, for food banks, across the country," she said.

"The government should make those supports available, and it does. The question is always can all New Zealanders afford to keep increasing that rate investment in the way we have in recent years? The books today tell us it's now a time for very careful choices."