An Update from our CEO,
Greg Pattinson

Right now we know that the rising cost of living is affecting everybody. We’ve heard this week that the electricity price is going to increase by up to 25% this year and that’s on top of increases to things like mortgages, rent, food and fuel that are already affecting many, many families across South Australia.

We are constantly meeting families like Ashley’s, who have never needed assistance to get food before and who are ashamed and embarrassed about finding themselves in that situation. To anyone out there who is in that situation, please reach out and ask for help.

Read Ashley’s story here: www.foodbank.org.au/SA/winterappeal2023

If you need food support visit: www.foodbanksa.org.au

Like everyone else in South Australia, Foodbank is also feeling the pinch of the rising cost of living. A lot of the food that we need to distribute we need to buy and we’ve spent more than $2.2 million so far this year in buying the food that we need, which is a significant increase on previous years. We’ve had to find that money through fundraising but also through the generosity of our major partners like the Motor Dealers of South Australia who very kindly donated money to us to get some new vehicles to be able to distribute the food that we need.

Despite all our best efforts, we need to do more. There is an increased demand for our services. We have more and more people coming into our Food Hubs seeking food assistance, some hubs are seeing record levels. We need the help of the community but more importantly, we need the help of the state government to be able to meet the demand. Much of the food we need we must buy ourselves so, we’re asking the South Australian state government to provide the sort of support to Foodbank SA that interstate Foodbank’s receive, where up to 25% of their funding comes from their state government.

We need the South Australian state government to invest in Foodbank SA to ensure that families in this state have the ability to address the cost of living pressures that they are under at the moment and also to help Foodbank to purchase the sort of food needed to be able to meet that demand.

On a happier note, we’ve just celebrated National Volunteer Week and on behalf of all of the staff at Foodbank I would like to thank the 563 Foodbank SA volunteers who made a significant change to Foodbank over the course of the last 12 months. We could not have done it without you.

Here at Foodbank SA we see ourselves as being the safety net for your community. With your support and with the support of the South Australian community we know that we can make a difference in people’s lives. So, on behalf of everybody at Foodbank SA we thank personally for your ongoing support.

Greg Pattinson
CEO, Foodbank SA & Central Australia