Auckland families devastated after missing out on Christmas food parcels

Thursday, 17 December 2020

Families who missed out on Auckland City Mission food parcels say they are facing Christmas without enough kai or presents for their kids.

The Mission closed the phone lines for its Christmas food and gift service on Wednesday afternoon due to “unprecedented” demand.

The phone lines are new this year, replacing a first-come-first-served system that used to result in people queueing up overnight to get a food parcel.

More than 40,400 food grants were requested during alert level 4, almost double that of last year.

But after hours of fruitless calls every morning this week, mum of six Samantha Lui said she preferred the old system, even when it meant queueing from 4am until the early afternoon.

Samantha Lui has relied on the Mission for Christmas parcels for years, and says this year will be hard without one.

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“You were guaranteed to walk away with something,” she said.

“So many kids are going to go without this Christmas. A lot of people rely on this, and there’s nothing wrong with relying on this.”

Now she’s trying to figure out how she can still make Christmas special for her kids – it will probably mean delaying a car payment and going into debt, she said.

“Some people say, ‘Don’t do Christmas,’ but you can’t do that to kids.”

But another mother in Ōtara doesn’t see any other option: “I won’t have anything to put a Christmas on with,” she said.

She spent three days trying to get through on the phone to get food to feed her three kids and nephew, who’s also in her care.

This will be the second year in a row she won’t be able to afford Christmas, she said.

“It’s going to break my heart to tell [my children] that Christmas won’t be happening.”

Speaking at Papakura Marae on Wednesday, the Mission’s Helen Robinson said she was “distressed” by the number of people they had not managed to help.

Demand for the Mission's food parcels has doubled in the wake of Covid, but the logistics of the Christmas distribution meant it was not possible to scale it up this year, she said.

There are people approaching the Mission for help this year who have never done so before.

One mother of two from Manurewa who was made redundant in October said this was the first time she had reached out for help.

She started calling on Monday and estimated she’d phoned more than 1000 times.

“You think, ‘Yes, yes I’m getting through.’ And then it goes to voicemail.”

She said she tried leaving her name and number on Monday but hadn’t yet heard back.

She said Christmas was looking “pretty bleak”.

“I'm not sure if I’ll have food for Christmas day. If it’s just me and the kids, we might have some chicken and veges and a bit of fruit hopefully.

“Maybe I can cut it up and make it look a bit fancier, or we can have a picnic out in the backyard.”

A spokesperson for the Mission said a decision on reopening the phone lines was a “day by day thing” but at the moment staff needed to work through a backlog of requests.

To donate to the Auckland City Mission, visit its website.