Our community partners at Foodbank have been heavily impacted this year, from the summer bushfires that left so many Australian families and businesses devastated to now tackling the impacts of the coronavirus, they have done an outstanding job to support our communities. 

Against these odds, Foodbank continues to provide food for 815,000 Australians each month, which advocates for almost 1 in 5 Australian who experience food insecurity. A 48% increase in people seeking food relief has been seen across operating charities, and Foodbank has experienced a 78% increase in demand for food relief compared to pre-COVID-19 levels.

This is mainly due to new demographic groups, some of whom have never had to ask for food assistance before. These include newly unemployed Australians, temporary visa holders, international students, and the elderly who find it difficult to leave home.

With supply chain disruptions and panic buying, several staple products have been in short supply, with volumes of donated food seeing a 27% drop nationally.

As a result of many generous partners, Foodbank has been able to tackle these significant challenges and provide the much-needed food relief to so many vulnerable Australians. This level of support has made it possible to balance the high increase in food relief demand and the decline in supplies.

On top of an increase in demand, many organisations have had to quickly adapt their operating models and the way they conduct their day-to-day business. 20% of charities have had to close operations, with the remainder switching to home deliveries and take-away options, with some even implementing drive-through collection methods.
Although having seen some positive results recently, Foodbank is still anticipating that the increase for food relief will continue. Particularly as many government supplements (e.g., Job Keeper) are withdrawn. COVID-19 has had extreme impacts on our economy through disruptions to business, a decline in salary and wages, mass unemployment, and a crash in interest rates. Therefore, the battle is far from over.

The team at Morris Finance is proud to be a Foodbank National Partner and support the much-needed services they provide for so many Australians. To find out more about Foodbank and how you can help, follow the link here.