The New Zealand Food Network, the country’s leading not-for-profit food distribution organisation, says there has been a 42% surge in demand for food support in 2023 in comparison to 2022, following a staggering 83% rise from the preceding year.
Network tumu whakarae Gavin Findlay says more and more people have to choose between paying their power bill or eating food. “And that’s a tough situation to be in.”
The food network’s Food Security Snapshot surveyed 60 of its affiliated Food Hubs to gauge the state of demand for food support from July to December 2023.
“We normally get a 95% return rate,” Findlay says.
“So we get really good engagement to understand what their ability to service their needs is, what their numbers are, and just a general understanding of what the need is out in the community. We work with about 30 Māori organisations. We distribute about 196 tonnes of products into those organisations.”
In 2023 NZFN extended assistance to an average of more than 630,000 individuals a month via its partner food hubs’ array of services, encompassing food parcels, community meals, social supermarkets, free stores and recipient organizations.
On the West coast of the South Island, Poutini Waiora has a team of dedicated workers who distribute donated kai to whānau in need. Kai distribution branch coordinator Christine Barton (Ngāti Maniapoto) says many of the people needing food are coming in for the first time.
“It’s important that we reduce that shyness and normalise that there is a time that we all have a need and kai is a human right.”
Findlay adds, “You’ve got to have some strength to go ‘I can’t feed my family’ because nobody wants to be in that situation.”
The NZFN is asking the country to “pitch in” for its campaign to receive enough food to fill Eden Park in time for International Food Day in October.