Auckland food banks struggle to keep up with the demand due to Covid-19

The team at the Auckland Society of St Vincent De Paul's is working around the clock to stay on top of requests for food bank services as demand rises to 650 a week.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic hit Aotearoa, St Vincent De Paul’s was providing for 30 to 50 families and individuals per week. This spiked at 1000 during the last outbreak, then settled at 500 as the cases of the virus reduced.

St Vincent De Paul's General Manager Delphina Soti said the latest outbreak is causing more panic among food-insecure people.

“Last night there were two of us working the emails, and we had to stay up to 3am to get to the top,” she said.

“This whole lockdown has a huge implication on some of these families. If families have mortgages and car payments the subsidy is simply not enough.”

The team at the Auckland City Mission is working hard to keep up with the demand for their food services.

Compared with last year, the City Mission produced 175% more food parcels from April to June due to Covid-19, according to the Social Services Manager Helen Robinson.

“Before Covid we were putting out about 450-500 food parcels a week and that literally doubled overnight.”

Ms Robinson said the City Mission has had some busy days since Level 3 was announced but hasn’t yet established whether there is a pattern.

“My instinct says that there will be an increase in surge and demand,” she said.

St Vincent De Paul’s workers say they are noticing reluctance to front up by families who’ve never reached out to a food bank before.

“There’s a lot of stigma around coming to a food bank,” Ms Soti said.

“There is enough food to feed our people and a lot of them are going without.”

St Vincent De Paul’s is now liaising with 134 providers, giving them 300 food parcels a week to deliver.  Volunteers are delivering a further 120 parcels a week themselves.

You can make donations through their websites at The Society of Saint Vincent De Paul's

and the Auckland City Mission