New year, same need for food | Northland News | Local News in Northland

People desperate for food for their families started arriving at the Salvation Army base at the Regent in Whangarei as soon as the doors opened after New Year, says community ministries team leader Pete Mullenger.

He said most requests came from people who operated on a very fine line financially and, when something went wrong, found themselves unable to feed their families.

"One was a dad with trade qualifications who has been constantly looking for work but has not been able to find any. Another had started a new job just before Christmas, but then the firm closed for a month and because he had been there such a short time he didn't qualify for holiday pay. That meant he and his family were back to square one financially," he said.

One man had asked for food and help working out how to live on just $8.13 a week - the amount left after various automatic payments, which included rent. The organisation would be doing advocacy work on his behalf to see if he could get supplementary benefits.

Discussion with his team had revealed that some people were caught out by Christmas spending, he said.

"Christmas is about celebration and family and if someone has gone into deficit trying to give their kid a nice time, who can stand in judgement on that one? You hear people voicing frustration that people who have to ask for food must have drunk or gambled it away but in nearly every instance this is so untrue."

He said the highest daily total of requests for food parcels since New Year was 25, last Thursday. The highest daily total pre-Christmas was 34. Due to the on-going generosity of Whangarei food businesses and individuals the Army's foodbank has been well able to respond, unlike some branches in other parts of the country.

Food donations were much higher than in previous years, indicating growing awareness of the plight some families were in. Supermarkets, individuals and businesses like egg-farms were being "incredibly generous" he said.

"We have never seen the foodbank looking so good post-Christmas."

He said he wasn't surprised at the generosity being shown in hard economic times.

"It's not just us, there's a number of organisations out there who know how good this town is when the going gets tough for people, and that awareness seems to be growing."

He said he had been working with other team members last week to see clients requesting food parcels and "you could see they were hurting".

"We are doing everything we can to lessen the knocks they have taken but funnily enough, just sitting in the waiting room helps because they see that so many other people are in the same boat. They realise they are not alone in not being able to make ends meet.

"I've been reminded every day since we got back that what I saw as a 10-day break, the people coming to us saw it as ten days without food."

The Salvation Army in other parts of New Zealand is also seeing an increase since Christmas in numbers of people who are unable to put food on the table, with the earthquake compounding the difficulties being experienced by some Christchurch families. Auckland and Northland Salvation Army Captain Gerry Walker said historically most help was needed by people on benefits and many families would feel increased financial strain when children needed uniforms and stationery for the new school year. Christchurch Salvation Army Major Mike Allwright said it was important to ask for help - "there are people out there who are willing to help but if nothing is said then no one really knows what's going on."