‘Maxed out’: City Mission foodbank overwhelmed as it approaches busiest time
Saturday, 30 November 2024
As Christmas approaches, The Press is running a campaign to get readers donating to the Christchurch City Mission through a Reverse Advent Calendar. Each day items can be collected so at the end of the month the mission is stocked for January, one of its hardest months.
Things have become tougher in the year Kirsty Elstone has worked as the Christchurch City Mission’s food bank team leader.
More people are walking through the mission’s doors to seek help - including more working families - and their phone lines are constantly ringing.
When asked how much food they now get a week, Elstone said “not enough”.
The mission’s foodbank has two streams: a self-serve foodbank that uses a point system based on the size of a family (the bigger the family, the more ‘points’ they’re able to spend). It also offers pre-packed food parcels.
The mission could help a maximum of 88 families a day, 55 through the foodbank and 33 with parcels. Every day, more than 88 families needed help.
“We are pretty much maxed out, at full capacity at the moment … from last year to this year I would say demand is definitely growing,” Elstone said.
The team answering calls from people needing help were “the busiest they’ve been”, so much so Elstone had to call in an extra person to help.
The team booked out food slots 24 hours in advance most days.
“A lot of people are struggling out there, a lot of people are unable to access additional support financially.”
Along with more demand, the mission has seen a downturn in food donations. It was a concern leading up to Christmas, Elstone said, as they aimed to give out 1800 food parcels on top of what they usually did the four days before December 25, as well as 55 extra for displaced people or those on the streets.
The mission received food from New World Durham St and the New Zealand Foodbank Network, but the amount fluctuated. The rest it purchased with its own money.
“Right now everyone's experiencing the economic downturn and donations are slower in weeks coming in than we’ve had before,” Elstone said.
“Suppliers that used to donate to us, that’s just not coming through because they’re also experiencing that.”
The food donated through the Reverse Advent Calendar campaign would not only help around Christmas time, but in the months following too.
Elstone said they saw lots of families struggle in January as kids who would have been getting school lunches suddenly had to be fed at home. And as the new school year approached, they had uniforms and stationery costs too.
“Getting some food in will be huge for us because we are getting quite light. We just need support from the community.”
In an effort to help the mission in the new year, The Press is encouraging readers to take part in its campaign to start a reverse advent calendar - the idea being to give rather than receive.
People are encouraged to grab a calendar, grab a box and pop a donation inside on every day in December, with the full boxes then going to the City Mission in time for January.
Reverse advent boxes can be taken to the mission's reception every weekday from 8.30am to 5pm. (It is not open weekends or public holidays.) Make sure to snap a photo of you and your box and send it to reporters@press.co.nz - we hope to publish a page of our generous readers.