Foodbanks are once again dealing with unprecedented demand this holiday season.
The Christchurch City Mission has cancelled its annual Christmas lunch and is instead focussing on providing more food parcels.
"We reassessed that and decided that really that was not really the best use of our time, energy, money and people. nd for food parcels all year has been high, probably up 20% on last year cost of them are up about 25% from last year," said Christchurch City Missioner Corrinne Haines.
This is set to be the busiest week in the mission's history.
Volunteers will hand out 1800 food parcels packed with three days’ worth of non-perishable items.
The Christchurch City Mission's social services manager, Zucchi Leonard, says they’re getting some Christmas goodies too.
“There's chicken, there's ham, there's sausages, there's pavlova, chocolates, biscuits, onion mix for onion dip and chips, reduced cream, gravy, jelly – all the sorts of things you want for treats on Christmas Day," she said.
Demand is high in Auckland too.
The Mission is once again operating its food and gift service out of Auckland's Eden Park, with crews working at maximum capacity to hand out the toys, food and Christmas favourites on offer.
Auckland City Missioner Helen Robinson says the demand is extraordinary.
"We've seen here the impact, obviously, the financial impact of Covid, of inflation and the cost of living," she said.
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