Creative Strategies Aussies Use to Stretch Their Budgets Amidst Rising Costs

Charities focused on food emergencies are now labeling the current cost of living crisis as a “cost of surviving crisis.” This is due to the increasing number of Australians who are not only cutting back on meals but also resorting to scavenging for food in bins as they grapple with overwhelming financial hardships.

A recent Salvation Army report, unveiled on Wednesday, surveyed 4,400 Australians seeking emergency relief. It revealed a staggering 91 percent of these individuals had skipped meals over the past year, with a third doing so on a daily basis.

The findings further highlighted that 67 percent of those surveyed had diluted food or beverages to extend their supply. Alarmingly, nearly 20 percent admitted to consuming food from dumpsters, and approximately 60 percent reported eating food past its expiration date.

Major Warren Elliot of the Salvation Army shared with SBS News that food insecurity is a widespread issue throughout the country.

“It affects not only those on pensions or benefits but also working families who are encountering unprecedented stress and challenges,” he noted.

Elliot said the war in the Middle East had worsened the years-long cost of living crisis, as 90 per cent of respondents said they had once been unable to refuel their cars or pay for public transport.

The report also touched on the impacts of severe financial distress on mental health. One 49-year-old respondent from Victoria noted that she felt like “a failure” to her children.

“Instead of enjoying special times like Christmas, my children’s birthdays, or even the tooth fairy, they are just major sources of stress that I start worrying about weeks before they arrive. I’ve lost all confidence and feel ashamed and embarrassed,” she said.

While some respondents who were parents told the Salvation Army that they would go without food in order to feed their children, 35 per cent of them said their children still had gone to school without a meal in the past 12 months.

Rose Darling, chair of the Adelaide-based Community Help and Togetherness, has been providing emergency food support for the past seven years. She’s noticed a growing number of people turning to help.

“It’s not just the numbers, it’s where we used to get smaller amount where we would just start out with a big breakfast, then we had to do groceries, and now we have to have gluten-free items plus fruit and vegetable plus bread for around 80 to 90 people to take home every Friday,” she said.

Darling said many people who suffer from food insecurity were senior citizens, elderly women and single parents. However, she’s also noticed an emerging group of people in need of help: renters.

She explained that many renters had suffered from an increase to rent rates, “and if they are trying to pay that rent, then they are struggling with every other bills as well”.

Her organisation also runs a weekly food distribution program at two primary schools, where her team collects unsold bread from supermarkets and offered them to students.

“One particular young boy, when I went to deliver bread one day … said ‘I’m so glad that you are here, because often when I stay with dad, the bread is bad, and I didn’t have anything to eat this week’,” she recalled.

The big demand for food relief has dramatically increased the workloads of charities, and sometimes they have to turn people away.

A recent report by OzHavest, which interviewed over 870 charities, found that over 74,000 people had to be turned away from food support every month, as charities fail to cope with the mass demand.

OzHarvest founder Ronni Kahn told SBS News that the findings were “shocking and outrageous”.

“The cost of living crisis has actually become a cost of surviving crisis,” she said. “I think many of our systems are broken.”

Calls for more preventative measures

Elliot from the Salvation Army called for governments to invest in programs that prevent people from becoming homelessness and suffering from severe financial distress.

“Once people are experiencing homelessness, it’s much harder to get them back into a house, and it’s a much harder process to support them through those [situations],” he said.

“We can support them early and get them over the top, and keep them in their homes. It’s better for everybody.”

Last July, the federal government announced the start of a national food security strategy.

Kahn said the government should be considering the families struggling to meet food needs.

“We need more resources, so that we can meet this unmet need,” she said.

The federal government funds four charity services to provide food emergency relief:

Foodbank, OzHarvest, SecondBite and Good360.

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