Foodbank in high demand

Poverty and hunger will plague the New Year for many Masterton parents already fighting to feed their children over the Christmas holidays, says Sanchia Hooker, co-ordinator for Masterton Central Community Foodbank.
In the week leading up to December 25 the foodbank packed and delivered 64 emergency food parcels for 242 Masterton adults and children without food to eat or money to spend on Christmas day, said Mrs Hooker, who has worked as a volunteer with the Masterton Foodbank since it's inception 15 years ago.
"It's not going to get better and there's absolutely no reason to believe it will. With such a good financial year for most last year, plenty of money being made and spent, some people in Masterton still refuse to believe we live in a community where our neighbours are struggling to survive meal to meal, payday to payday.
"Some just don't understand how little others really have; the elderly living alone, the single parent families, families surviving on a benefit, families making ends meet when dad is the only one working, when he is, and that's for a minimum wage. We just don't realise."
Emergency parcels are packed on request to provide recipients with a basic healthy diet for a week according to the size of the family in need, she said, with no more than three parcels given a year to any one party. Should a party make any further requests for assistance once their limit is reached, they are then referred to a budget service.
Included in the parcels are items like bread, margarine, spreads, frozen mince, canned fruit in summer or soup in winter, breakfast cereals, canned spaghetti and baked beans, pasta and rice, sugar, and fresh fruit and produce.
Parcels have an average value of up to about $50 and a record of names and addresses is kept of all parcel recipients, she said.
This information is also matched against data held by the Carterton foodbank and smaller foodbanks run by the Salvation Army and the St Vincent De Paul Society in Masterton, she said, to avoid possible abuse or overuse "in fairness to the people" who may have a greater need but a lower profile on the database.
The Carterton foodbank also reported a busy time leading up to Christmas and has through the past year been well supported in their efforts.
Included in the parcels are items like bread, margarine, spreads, frozen mince, canned fruit or soup in the winter, breakfast cereals, canned spaghetti and baked beans, pasta and rice, sugar, and fresh fruit and produce.
Mrs Hooker said a Masterton family several weeks ago were enduring a "largely unseen and seemingly unending" financial need, which most of the time also goes unanswered.
"These people had nothing. There were only two kitchen chairs and three of the children had to sit on the floor to eat. For them it's one pay and one meal a day with no spare money at all and no real way out in the short-term."