Report: demand for food parcels quadrupled during lockdown

There has been a soaring demand for food parcels across the country. Across Auckland demand peaked at four times the usual demand during lock-down, and has been met with a new drive-through festive food bank in West Auckland to meet the need there. The Vision West charity has delivered 16,000 food parcels in West Auckland in the past four months, during lock-down. By comparison it delivered 9,000 during the entire year before (from July 2020 - June 2021). The need for food support increased dramatically in the first weeks of the lockdown, before which Vision west supplied an average of 261 food parcels per week. During the recent lockdown the average was over 1,000 food parcels per week- a fourfold increase in demand. Vision West has instigated a drive-through Christmas food parcel service designed to meet Covid restrictions, which aims to preserve whanau dignity. The charity has just released a report detailing lockdown's impact on Aucklanders' need to seek help with basic necessities. Head of Service Development at Vision West Brook Turner speaks with Kathryn Ryan, along with Tric Malcolm, Pou Arahi (CE) of Kore Hiakai Zero Hunger Collective, who says every food bank in Auckland, and across the motu has had a massive increase in demand for food parcels, not seen since the Global Financial Crisis of 2009.