Foodbanks forced to scale back as shortage of donations hits home

• Author: Finn Blackwell of RNZ
• Published date: 25 May 2023
• Publication title: Northland Age, The

Across the North Island, many are finding people do not have the same capacity to donate as they once did

The Aotearoa Food Parcel Measure indicates that the nationwide number of food parcels distributed in March was 3422 fewer than at the start of the year.

The Tauranga Community Foodbank said it had seen fewer donations in recent months.

Manager Nicki Goodwin said they were struggling to keep up with rising costs. “We’re having to really tighten the budget and be really careful with our purchasing, we’re mindful that we’re in a position of reasonable stability for a charitable organisation.

“We’ve been here for 32 years, and we intend to be available for the community for the next 32.”

People who had not used the foodbank in years were needing support once again, Goodwin said.

“We’re seeing a lot of people come back to us for support that we may not have seen for 10 to 20 years, so they’ve needed help at some point, managed to be self-sustainable for all that time, and now [are] needing support again.”

She thought a more focused approach to providing support would help the situation.

“We need to look at different housing models, we need to look at some extra support for middle New Zealand until the housing situation is improved, which is going to take decades. I think there needs to be a...