Te Puke foodbank seeing huge increases in demand

The Hub Te Puke's foodbank manager Clare Cooper.

Demand for food parcels from Te Puke's foodbank is sky high.

''Our stats have gone through the roof,'' says foodbank manager Clare Cooper.

The foodbank is run by The Hub Te Puke. On the Friday prior to Labour Weekend, 27 parcels went out.

''Pre-Covid, that was enough for a week,'' says Clare.

Between August and October last year, the foodbank distributed 380 parcels. In the same period this year, that figure was 530.

And the number of people getting the food has increased, too.

''This time last year that covered about 580 people. This year they covered 1500 people,'' says The Hub general manager Scott Nicholson.

So not only are there more parcels, they have to be bigger as the sizes of households increases.

''Especially during level 3 when households bubbled, we were doing parcels for families of 12 and 13,'' says Clare.

There has been a noticeable increase in people asking for help from the foodbank for the first time.

''It's really changed, the whole concept of who needs help,'' she says. ''Rents have gone up, fuel prices have gone up and we've had people come in and say 'we managed last lockdown, but we've got no savings this time'. It's hard-working people. Mum and Dad are working hard, but ends aren't meeting.''

The result is foodbank stocks are lower than they were this time last year.

Next Thursday sees the annual emergency services food collection around Te Puke, earlier in the year than it has been in the past.

Collectors will be out from around 5.30pm.

''We had an amazing response last year, it was overwhelming, and that set us in really good stead last year. We were chugging along alright until this last lockdown.''

The community continues to assist, with people regularly dropping off food and produce from their garden, despite The Hub currently being closed to the public.

''And our supermarkets have really stepped up.''

Food rescue is becoming more and more important, with nearly a tonne of food a week being rescued.

''We are having to re-educate people in the fact that their food parcels look different. The veges we are rescuing are still perfectly edible, but they are not in pristine condition.

''And we put a flyer in now about best-before dates and use-by dates.

''People are getting bigger parcels with more nutritional value. The food isn't always pristine - but it's not going to the pigs.''

The demand for Christmas parcels is something that is difficult to predict.

''Having a look at the increase during the year, we can only say Christmas will be busier [than last year],'' says Clare.

''What we are expecting is where families have been on reduced incomes, they've already been using what reserves they had, so we are expecting a lot of families going into Christmas with no reserves there, or what they have set aside for Christmas is possibly already used,'' says Scott.

• The Hub will also be collecting donations of Christmas gifts for children aged between 1 and 13 and are asking that gifts be wrapped and marked with an indication of the gender and age they are suitable for.