It has written an open letter and launched a petition, demanding a meeting with incoming Prime Minister Christopher Luxon before Christmas.

CPAGs health spokesperson and former paediatrician Professor Ines Asher says they're calling for the meeting because none of the parties forming the new Government have policies to reduce child poverty.

She says it's "alarming" that there has been a "surge of babies admitted to hospital" with preventable diseases.

"Most of these babies become so sick because of their inadequate living conditions which enable bugs to thrive ...".

Asher says there's not enough for the basics; homes are cold and overcrowded, unhealthy and mouldy.

The nutrition is poor and stress levels are high.

Policies can be created to intervene to ensure these families can access the "basics" which she says will reduce hospital admissions.

Food accessibility, affordability and availability should be included in the policy, Asher says.

She adds that we had policies like this in the 1980s but they have all eroded now.

CPAG wants more help for low-income and benefit-dependent families, more state houses, better legislation about housing standards and help particularly with food adequacy.

For children, this means the food must be of a quality that enables them to be healthy - which is "manifestly" not the case at present, she points out strongly..

The extent of the problem

Almost half a million New Zealanders rely on food handouts each week, CPAG notes.

Stats NZ's most up-to-date Consumer Price Index information shows that, in addition to groceries, food, meat, fish and poultry prices saw an eight per cent increase on the previous year.

It doesn't matter where you live, North or South, people are lining up for assistance with the basics.

Rotorua Salvation Army foodbank corps officer Hana Seddon says the organisation had always been "an important part of a community response to the needs out there".

This year, people with jobs and mortgages struggling to feed their families are also turning to the food bank, she says.

Invercargill-based Salvation Army Major Murray Sanson says they also now see "the working poor".

He says rising rents are putting pressure on families, and extreme weather events in the North Island are creating food insecurity.

A similar story is being reported from the Tauranga Community Foodbank.

Manager Nicki Goodwin says they're seeing "record demand". As is the case elsewhere, homeowners, people working full-time and double-income households are looking for food support.

This year, the food bank has helped 22,298 people within 8213 households. This included 11,797 children she says.

Community help

Communities have developed many innovative ways to help support their food banks, from radio appeals to street collections.

Invercargill's current drive is seasonal and involves "reverse adventers".

They set out to "flip the script" on advent calendars, by collecting donations rather than receiving advent calendar gifts.

Each reverse adventer fills a box or a bag and adds a non-perishable food or toiletry item daily. After collecting 24 donations, the bag is taken to the Salvation Army's food bank.

Source

• Rotorua Daily Post
• NZ Herald
• Stuff
• RNZ

It was true in the 19th century, and as Covid-19 stubbornly continues to spread through the community in our biggest city, it is true here and now.

An adequate standard of living has never been available for everyone in Aotearoa.

A Maori Women's Welfare League survey in 1952 reported that poverty, overcrowding, damp and unaffordable rental housing were key issues in Auckland. Seven decades on, the same is true.

In the middle of the last century, there were not enough state houses to meet the need.

Until the late 1940s, Maori had been excluded from state housing.

Due to sound government policies being put in place from the 50s to the mid-1980s things improved a lot, with proportionately more state houses, better incomes and the family benefit.

It was a period of greater stability in people's lives - having enough and reaching your potential was more likely to be achievable, although less likely for Maori than Pakeha.

Fast forward to September 2021 and we see the results of three decades of neglectful policy: fewer statehouses to meet the increasing needs.

At the same time, large numbers of people in private rentals face unaffordable rents and insecure tenancies.

The overall impact of current government policy is increasing the need for emergency housing, with more people homeless.

A low-wage economy leaves increasing numbers of people in paid work struggling or failing, to make ends meet.

It is even harder for those striving to live on inadequate benefits.

The result is many leading desperate lives; eyebrows no longer rise in surprise when we read about people, more commonly with disabled family members, living in garages or unsafe emergency accommodation, or young people dying from rheumatic fever.

To our shame, it has become familiar.

The Working for Families package is meant to be the primary source of income support for children in low-income families.

However, when parents receive benefits they are denied a crucial payment for their children ($72.50 per week or more for larger families).

This stark discrimination in favour of children of parents who were not on any benefit was introduced in 1996 and remains.

New Zealand is an outlier among similar countries; in Australia for example, children's income support is not tied to parents' source of income.

It is a tragic indicator that food banks provided by charities - some subsidised by the government - are now a routine feature in our country.

This is a result of decades of market-driven policies that prohibit many families from receiving adequate incomes to cover basic needs (including housing, power, transport, shoes, doctors' visits, and nutritious food); let alone enough to pay for school uniforms, sports gear and school trips.

It doesn't have to be this way.

Is it any wonder that delta should prove so difficult to eliminate among people left struggling to survive?

Lack of online access to news and information as well as language barriers for many, mean public health messages may not be seen by people who are already feeling isolated from their community.

For others, dire living conditions can bring on anxiety as well as mistrust of the government brought about by years of bitter experience.

Who can blame people on the margins if they prioritise finding access to food supplies for hungry children ahead of finding a way to get to a Covid centre for testing or vaccination?

Overcrowding and temporary housing make social distancing at home difficult.

Aaron Hendry, who works with homeless youth, puts it this way: "If we treated housing as a human right, we wouldn't be in this situation. Blaming whanau living in third world conditions, with shared facilities and unable to isolate misses the bigger issue that is contributing to this problem." Continue reading

• Innes Asher FRACP ONZM is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Paediatrics: Child and Youth Health, University of Auckland, was a member of the Welfare Expert Advisory Group, and is a spokesperson for the Child Poverty Action Group

Uber Eats continues to charge high commission rates.

When the country moves to Alert Level 3 the problem for some may well be to decide how their restaurant meals will be delivered.

But there is a growing number who cannot even buy food from the supermarket.

Earlier this month the CEO of the Christchurch City Mission Matthew Mark told Newshub he feared the more elongated the lockdown the more demand would increase.

He said we know that the lockdown is necessary, and appears to be working to stemming the spread; however, we also need to be aware of the spread of other resultant factors.

"As businesses are closing their doors permanently resulting in increased unemployment, the reduction of hours and/or levels of pay and the changing dynamic of our environment."

On Wednesday Auckland City Missioner Chris Farrelly said some of those people needing help have never been to a food bank before.

"Now we have this new group who have been affected by business closures, reduced hours, pay cuts, some of those in precarious work arrangements, who've just suddenly found themselves unable to feed their children."

Murray Edridge from the Wellington City Mission said they've seen a 400 per cent increase in the need for food parcels.

He says the sharp increase shows the financial pressure New Zealanders are under during the pandemic.

Some of those people are elderly or have vulnerable family members or young children, and they just can't get to a supermarket.

"Quite frankly, some people are very afraid of leaving the house, and we're seeing that."

A support package to bolster the delivery of food and welfare assistance by local authorities and Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) Groups has been approved by the government.

Source

• newshub.co.nz
• thespinoff.co.nz
• newshub.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• Image: hcamag.com

Food insecurity, or food poverty, is defined as not having enough appropriate food.

The City Mission says information about food insecurity in New Zealand is outdated and sparse.

But research led by the mission's general manager of social services, Helen Robinson, estimates about 10 per cent of the population is experiencing food insecurity.

The survey involved 650 people who had accessed the organisation's foodbank.

19 per cent of children live in families which lack food security

A 2019 New Zealand Health Survey estimate indicated that although the majority of children live in food-secure households, many New Zealand children do not.

In 2015/16, almost one in five children (19.0%) lived in households with severe to moderate food insecurity.

Women, Maori and Pasifika

Predominantly, women were the face of food insecurity and were bearing the greatest burden of poverty.

Maori and Pasifika people were also over-represented amongst those living with food insecurity, the City Mission said.

The research found that nearly 40 per cent of those surveyed have struggled to access enough appropriate food for themselves and their household for two years or more.

People who didn't have enough food were more likely to be emotionally unwell and were distressed some of the time.

Linked to poverty

The City Mission said food insecurity is linked to poverty.

Once housing costs were paid, low-income individuals and families were often forced to choose between buying food and other essential costs.

When there wasn't enough money for food, people either ate poorly or missed meals completely.

The City Mission has called for action

• Hold an annual survey to gather information about how adults and children are affected by food insecurity
• Develop a national food strategy giving vision and direction, cohesion and coordination to ensure everyone has enough appropriate food
• Consider women-oriented interventions, such as raising the level of the sole parent support payment, and providing further financial assistance to women raising children
• Raise income levels.

Click here to donate to Auckland City Mission

Source

• rnz.co.nz
• health.govt.nz
• Image: aucklandcitymission.org.nz

More than 132 agencies and churches use Christchurch's 0800 Hungry - which also delivers directly to families - with surplus supplies going to low decile schools. Continue reading

At the same time government support has shrunk, particularly in the form of food grants.

Executive officer Trevor McGlinchey said social service organisations were under huge financial stress.

But government funding has stayed largely static for the last eight years.

More people use food banks but grants of food decreased

The NZCCSS report shows the provision of food bank services and meals by NZCCSS' member agencies becoming a ‘normal' part of how many people coped when income levels are too low.

More and more people were relying on food parcels from community food banks. Yet Work and Income's special needs grants for food decreased by 28 percent between December 2009 to December 2015.

Housing NZ waiting list dropped 10,000 while homelessness increased

The report also found that in the same period, Housing New Zealand waiting lists dropped from over 10,000 to 3500.

At the same time overcrowding and homelessness increased, and emergency housing providers were being swamped with people asking for help.

McClinchey said the Government has relied too heavily on the response of community organisations, charities and service providers to meet the needs.

Government response

A spokesman for the Social Development Minister Anne Tolley said food grants peaked in 2010 at the height of the global financial crisis.

They were now at "similar levels" to 2011. While the number of applications had declined, the percentage granted had increased, he said.

No evidence taxpayer money is effectively helping the needy

The spokesperson said that the government invests over $330 million of taxpayer money in the social services sector - and there is little evidence it is effective in helping vulnerable people.

So the department is revamping the system through the community investment strategy so that it makes a real difference for those who need support the most.

The spokesperson said Budget 2016 invested

• an additional $347 million as part of the overhaul of care and protection for vulnerable young people
• $46 million for a new nationwide system to support victims of sexual abuse system,
• $790 million child material hardship package in Budget 2015 represented the first rise in benefits for 43 years."

Source

• radionnz.co.nz
• Image: nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net

The 5km loop walk on Saturday, March 21 will raise funds for the Society of St Vincent de Paul, to be distributed to Auckland food banks.

The 1-1.5 hour walk starts at the Pompallier Diocesan Centre in Ponsonby and returns there for a sausage sizzle, as part of a community day.

People are asked to gather at 2.30pm for a 3pm start.

Registration is required for the event and there will be a limit to the number who can register.

Anyone aged 16 years or under will have to be accompanied by an adult.

For those sponsoring themselves, a minimum $10 donation is suggested.

Continue reading

"Basically we sell the products online, people go on and buy the products, and at the end of the month all of the products that have been purchased [on the online food bank] are given to the city mission itself," Fundy co-founder Tanerau Tuuta says.

The past two months have seen goods donated to the Auckland and the Wellington city missions. This month the products bought will be given to the Christchurch City Mission.

Tuuta set the website up with a friend about a year ago to assist charities with raising funds online.

Source

• New Zealand Herald
• Image: Kaibosh

The Elim Christian Centre, formerly known as the Equip Church, will deliver food packs to needy families in Whangarei rather than organising a Christmas dinner which it did previously.

Foodbanks from Auckland to Dunedin are reporting empty shelves and with Christmas looming they are asking for food donations - specifically canned soup, fruit and spreads.

The Auckland City Mission said their food parcel statistics were at a record high.

Gisborne Salvation Army pastor Graham Medland said their demand for food parcels had remained steady but the donation of food to the centre had dropped.

Student demand for financial assistance and foodbank services has soared in Dunedin, with welfare schemes run by student associations at the university and polytechnic being pushed past their financial limits.

Otago University Students' Association welfare officer Shonelle Eastwood said there had been a 64% increase in student demand for foodbank services compared with 2010.

Financial assistance vouchers for supermarkets had also been sent to students based at the university's Christchurch and Wellington campuses - the first time these kinds of requests had been made, Miss Eastwood said.

Source

• The New Zealand Herald
• Otago Daily Times
• Image: Zimbo.com