With demand soaring due to COVID-19, in 2020, Foodbank obtained almost 49 million kilograms of food and groceries for people in need. It was a combination of donations from the food and grocery sector and funding from the public and private sector and individuals.
Foodbank Australia CEO Brianna Casey said it was one of the hardest years. “Last year saw us face one crisis after another; off the back of a persistent drought and the catastrophic Black Summer fires, we then had to reach out and ask for even more support in March when COVID-19 hit, and unemployment rates skyrocketed,” Casey said.
The 48.8 million kilograms was an increase of nearly 15 per cent on 2019 and equated to 87.9 million meals.
In a ‘normal year’ Foodbank provides relief to more than 815,000 people every month. “But 2020 wasn’t a normal year,” Casey said. “In the three months from April to July, Foodbank purchased more food and groceries than we had in the previous three years.”
In March 2020, when the pandemic hit, Foodbank had to upscale quickly to meet the immediate demand for food relief. Casey said charities reported demand for food and grocery relief increased by an average of 47 per cent throughout the year.
The Foodbank Hunger Report 2020 released in October, revealed more than a quarter (28 per cent) of those experiencing food insecurity due the pandemic had never faced it before.
Casey said without donors and partners and support from the federal government, there was no way Foodbank could have responded as well as it did.
Foodbank provides food and groceries to over 2400 charities and 2500 schools. More than 40 per cent of all food and groceries distributed by Foodbank nationally goes to regional and rural communities.
