Government agrees to step up as a growing number of Canberrans go hungry

The ACT Government will work towards a more coordinated response to growing food insecurity in the ACT after a motion from Independent MLA Thomas Emerson passed the Legislative Assembly unanimously on Tuesday (4 February).

In his first private member’s motion in the Assembly, Mr Emerson called on the government to develop an ACT Food Relief Action Plan to deal with a 25 to 75 per cent increase in demand for food relief services, citing a report released by VolunteeringACT.

The report says 50 organisations, many of which do not receive government funding, were struggling to cope with the increasing numbers of people running out of food, with staff and volunteers using their own money to keep food on the shelves.

Mr Emerson’s motion called on the government to engage with community organisations, food relief providers, and those in need or who have received help to develop and deliver a coordinated ACT Food Relief Action Plan co-designed with the community sector to ensure sufficient food relief services across the ACT.

It calls on the government to consider the scope and scale required to maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of the ACT’s food relief sector, ways to address the challenges faced by community organisations in sourcing, receiving, storing and distributing quality food across the ACT, and incentives to encourage the retail and hospitality sectors to donate food and reduce waste.

The motion passed with amendments to speed up the timetable to develop a plan and for surge funding.

Mr Emerson said 12,500 Canberrans ran out of food in 2019, and while there was no recent data, the community sector knew that figure had only grown.

He said the government had stepped up during the pandemic with the Canberra Relief Network and Canberra Food Relief Network but had vacated the field to the community sector in recent years.

“We’re hearing from community organisations who are each having to negotiate their own arrangements in terms of the supply chain for food, and government could be in this space and did act in this space during the pandemic, negotiating better arrangements to provide some coordinated logistical support when it comes to sourcing, storing and also distributing food,” Mr Emerson said.

“There’s a lot of duplication of processes going on and improved efficiency here would make a big difference.”

Mr Emerson said the profile of people in need was changing. People in secure work were going to their local food pantry asking for help, and university students were telling professors they couldn’t make it to class because the food pantry was only open from 9 to 5.

“Often we talk about the cost of living crisis, but a couple of interest rate cuts aren’t going to make a huge difference to the people that we’re seeing are in need,” he said.

Food insecurity was becoming more entrenched and there was a need for an ongoing response from government.

Vinnies Canberra and Goulburn CEO Lucy Hohnen said the organisation was seeing an escalation in the number of people coming to it for food, including families who have one or sometimes two jobs in households that could not make ends meet.

“We’re seeing a real desperation actually in the community,” she said.

Vinnies operates four food provision services, including two drop-in centres and the night patrol.

Ms Hohnen said a more planned structure would help Vinnies and other organisations to reach everybody who needs support.

Mohammed Ali from Helping ACT said that while one out of 10 people used to need support, this number is now easily 1.5 or 2 out of 10.

“And the problem with this is that it’s not completely realised at the government level at this point in time,” he said.

Mr Ali called for two new spaces for food banks in the north and the south of the ACT.

Helping ACT provides food to people experiencing homelessness, women and children fleeing domestic violence, and breakfasts for school students.

“There should be no one in Canberra who goes hungry to bed … because Canberra is an affluent society,” he said.

Canberra Rape Crisis Centre Nguru Manager Paula McGrady said the programs during COVID should be reintroduced because “how can anyone who’s having to deal with a lot of trauma also have to worry about the shame, the embarrassment” of having to ask for a food hamper?

Ms McGrady said staff were donating food to the centre’s pantry.

“The people in the community that set up their garages for food pantries, they’re exhausted,” she said.

“We need the government to come to the game.”

Amendments from Independent Fiona Carrick called on the government to consider providing additional surge funding from 2025-26 to meet the needs of the community for food relief and to expedite its response.

It calls on the government to table a finalised ACT Food Relief Action Plan with associated implementation actions in the Assembly by March 2026 instead of June so that its findings can be considered for ongoing funding in the 2026-27 Budget and provide funding certainty to the sector.

A Liberal amendment seeks to ensure that government responses to the challenges of providing food relief do not add unnecessary administrative or bureaucratic burdens to community organisations and businesses.