‘No one should be going to bed hungry’, says Salvos team
BY ANTHONY CASTLE
Earlier this year, Senator Dean Smith tabled a Bill to generate a Food Donation Tax Offset for producers and retailers that donate quality food.
For some retailers, throwing food away can be cheaper than giving it away. At a time when the Food Bank estimates that 3.4 million Australian households are experiencing food insecurity, The Salvation Army supports steps that would improve access to food relief for Australians in need.
“Food relief is a major part of the work of the Salvation Army,” shared Josh Gani, Senior Policy and Advocacy Advisor, at the inquiry.
“We provide relief to Australians every single day, whether it be serving breakfast every weekday to community members in Katherine, providing meals to firefighters during bushfires, providing food hampers across New South Wales or operating whole cafes, such as the one at Melbourne Project 614.”
Ongoing cost-of-living pressures have led many community members to seek food and other assistance from The Salvation Army for the first time. Food insecurity does not discriminate and can affect those in paid employment or those who have never experienced disadvantage before. For many potential donors, food donation can have the same financial incentive as destruction, and the associated costs for donation, including transportation and storage costs, become a financial barrier.
“There has been a significant increase in people coming to us saying the reason they are coming is because they can’t afford food,” shared Jennifer Kirkaldy, General Manager Policy and Advocacy.
“Food insecurity is often a proxy for housing insecurity and other general expenses. Really, for us, it is around housing, and it is around income support. Food relief is critically important, but if we’re talking about the two basic, big-ticket items, they are housing and income.”
The Salvation Army sees that the Bill takes reasonable steps to ensure that food fit for human consumption is delivered to those in need rather than dumped. This prevents the Food Donation Tax Offset from being used to hand off expired or unfit food. The Salvation Army has encouraged the Committee to remember that food relief, including community meals, pantries, or any other kind of emergency relief, is a band-aid solution to a larger problem of food insecurity.
“We’d like to point to the long-term picture of disadvantage, which is behind food insecurity,” says Josh.
“We have seen an increase in demand for food relief due to current cost-of-living pressures, but we’ve been providing food relief for 140 years. That’s why we know that no one action is going to address the systemic needs. Long-term consideration must be put to broader disadvantage, again, touching on the issues of housing insecurity and the inadequacy of income support payments.”
The Salvation Army is calling for raising the inadequate levels of JobSeeker and Youth Allowance payments, which force many people experiencing unemployment into food insecurity.
“From our perspective, there is no better use of taxpayers’ money than making sure that everybody’s basic needs are being met,” Jennifer shared. “No one should be going to bed hungry.”
Since the Committee report, The Salvation Army has worked on this issue with Anglicare, Food Bank, Oz Harvest, Second Bite, St Vincent de Paul Society, and Uniting Care. The Salvation Army has also contacted every senator, encouraging them to support the Bill and inviting them to visit its food relief centres. Many have already accepted the invitations and will visit sites across the sector in the coming weeks.
