Cost of Living: The Sutherland Shire’s “Hidden Hunger Crisis”

TRANSCRIPT

Troy Murphy:
With the interest rate rise this weekend, families all across the country, not just here in the Sutherland Shire, expressing concerns with cost of living. We have seen an increased demand in organizations who help feed, clothe and support not only the homeless, but the disenfranchised, the vulnerable, and the at-risk members of our local communities with some data suggesting that monthly demand for food relief is up 50% in just the past few years to talk about this and so much more is Ruth Brown, the Sutherland Shire Coordinator for one meal based here in Sutherland. Ruth, thank you so much for making the time to come on the show today. 

Ruth Brown – One Meal:
Thanks, Troy. Thanks for reaching out to talk to me. 

Troy Murphy:
My pleasure. Now, Ruth, can we start by getting you to tell us about your organization, your nonprofit, one meal, and your organization’s involvement across the Sutherland Shire? 

Ruth Brown – One Meal:
Sure. So one meal is all over Sydney. We have services all over Sydney, but here specifically in the Sutherland Shire, we now run four services every week. It’s a hundred percent volunteer run, and we are a not-for-profit, rely on donations from the community to continue the services we do, and we have found that we started with just one service a week at Sutherland, probably eight or nine years ago, and then we started one at Miranda, followed by Cronulla. And then just over 12 months ago, another service at Adeen. 

Troy Murphy:
That’s a lot of services per week. I want to find out what sort of numbers you are getting through the door, but I thought, look, this is a bit of an issue across the country and in Sydney. According to your website, it’s been dubbed Sydney’s Hidden Hunger Crisis. Now there are some national statistics that are out, so I want to just go through that for a second before we talk about our more local area. 2023 data has revealed that 28% of the general population now feels anxious or struggles to consistently access adequate food across the country. Given the current trend by the end of 2023, we faced the reality of half the Australian population having experienced some level of difficulty in meeting the most basic need food with 77% of those households experiencing food insecurity for the first time. In the past year, 3.7 million households in Australia experienced food insecurity in the past 12 months. That’s more than the number of households in Sydney and Melbourne combined in the past year, 3.7 million Australian households that 36% experienced moderate to severe food insecurity and 23% severe food insecurity. That’s where people skip meals or whole days without eating. Now, Ruth, what increases in demand have you seen at one meal in our local area over the past couple years, 

Ruth Brown – One Meal:
Troy, mainly we’ve seen an increase in the number of people attending our services since the second lockdown. We found that our numbers increased dramatically during the lockdown, but they didn’t really decrease once things went back to normal. We find that, especially at our Miranda service that we have each week, which we run in conjunction with the Salvos and the Community Co-op, our numbers have they just ballooned out and then have stayed at that number. And a lot of the patrons that come there are young, well parents with young children, which is just, it’s heartbreaking and you have a chat to some of them, and their problem is that they’ve got to pay rent and utilities and things like that, and food is the last on the list. And some of these parents are just beside themselves with worry because they can’t even give their children some morning tea to take to school. Just the basics that so many of us take for granted. 

Troy Murphy:
What are you hearing on the ground from people across the Sutherland Shire? We’ve been told that this won’t go away anytime soon. This cost of living crisis, which is leading to this hidden hunger crisis across Sydney, how much worse can this get? 

Ruth Brown – One Meal:
Well, I mean, we’ll never know until it actually happens, but we’re just doing our best each week to feed as many people as we can. We have some of our patrons that come to all four services each week, and they find that that helps make the rest their money go further for the other necessities in life. And we not only give them a hot meal, we give them fresh fruit to take home. We have breakfast packs that we make up and hand out for them to take home. Recently at our Miranda service, a couple of volunteers got together and made up snack packs to give out to families so they can give to their kids when they go to school so they can have a healthy snack. And who knows? I mean, it’s disheartening to see that when the numbers grew so much during the lockdown, we all put it down to the fact, well, some people can’t work because they’ve lost their employment due to the lockdown. But you would like to think that since then a lot of them managed to regain employment. But it doesn’t seem that, well, I mean, they may have regained employment because the cost of living has gone up so much, they still can’t make ends meet. 

Troy Murphy:
You wouldn’t think we’d have this in the Sutherland Shire. We’re a pretty affluent area. I would assume that the majority of people who aren’t aware of this have not in my backyard, sort of naivety towards this issue. You said that you’ve seen a steady increase since the end of the second lockdown. What sort of percentages are we talking about here in growth? Is it a small percentage or is it very dramatic? The percentage of increase? 

Ruth Brown – One Meal:
Well, I would say our Miranda service is the major one, but then again, the fact that we were able to launch an extra service at INE only just over 12 months ago, and we are getting people attending, that just goes to show that there may be many other people out there struggling that aren’t even aware of the support we can give ’em. But our Miranda service probably a, well, it almost doubled in the number of people attending it. And I mean, we’re very fortunate that with the community co-op and Salves, we hand out also a hamper of staple foods to the patrons at that service before they also get a meal from us. So for them, it’s a very valuable service to attend. Then that’s possibly why the numbers have remained so high, because we are really happy that we can help people with just basic non-perishable pantry items. Plus we also get donated a lot of vegetables and things like that, so our other services tended to remain possibly the same numbers. They didn’t really increase why it happened in Miranda and not at the others is hard to know, but it could also be the draw card of being able to get the hamper of food as well at the same time. 

Troy Murphy:
You mentioned doubled, the doubled in attendance. What sort of numbers is that? 

Ruth Brown – One Meal:
Well, originally we were getting around 30 people there each week, which is what we get at Sutherland 30 to 40, and then it doubled to 60, and sometimes it’s more than 60 

Troy Murphy:
Per week. 

Ruth Brown – One Meal:
Yeah, and it’s hectic. 

Troy Murphy:
I could, especially for a volunteer organization that relies solely on donations, but it’s not just food you provide. There’s the mental health aspect to what you do through a positive connection and engagement. Can you speak to that and maybe some examples? 

Ruth Brown – One Meal:
Oh, absolutely. A lot of the people that come to our services are socially isolated, so for them it’s their group of friends. They come early, they sit around chatting. That’s why we have a sit down meal so that they can sit down and talk to each other. Also, we highly encourage our volunteers to chat to the patrons. Over the years, I’ve gotten to know a lot of them really personally and know their stories, and it’s like friends. We see each other when we’re at service and catch up with each other’s life story at the moment. And we have some absolutely lovely people that come to our services. And for them, the social aspect is extremely important. 

Troy Murphy:
Have you approached local, state, or federal government? Is there any assistance that you get from the governments? 

Ruth Brown – One Meal:
We do apply for government grants when they’re available. And also, Suland Shire Council recently gave us a grant, some grant money, but a lot of the grants have certain guidelines. We don’t always fit into those guidelines as far as what they would like the money spent on. So that makes it difficult sometimes. 

Troy Murphy:
You almost need a degree to write some of those grant applications too. 

Ruth Brown – One Meal:
Most definitely. 

Troy Murphy:
Could they do more? Could the governments do more? Let’s call them out. What could the governments be doing to help you help the community in need? 

Ruth Brown – One Meal:
Well, gee, I’ve never really sat down and I mean, we all have our own views on what governments could do to help people. It’s just with the interest rates going up, people struggling to pay their mortgages if they have one. And I know the rental, it’s a bit of a crisis for people to find rental properties, and I have been told by quite a few people that for anyone to apply to get housing through the government, there’s a lot of loopholes and a lot of work that they have to put in. And it can be overwhelming. And I know we also partner with Hope Field, who can assist people apply for all these things, but I think it can put a lot of people off and it would be very, very daunting. Yeah, and how do we create more housing, more affordable housing for people? It’s that wonderful wish. 

Troy Murphy:
It’s that magical question that we all wish we could answer. Something that I have seen in the media of late being reported is families double income children and a mortgage starting to reach out for support like yours. Are you starting to see that across the Sutherland Shire? 

Ruth Brown – One Meal:
Look, it’s possible. Troy, normally we’ll only have one parent come to a service and pick up some food. So unless you get the opportunity to have a chat to them, you don’t really know. But look, there’s no reason why that’s not happening. Everybody’s struggling, so it’s quite feasible. 

Troy Murphy:
If people are struggling and listening to this tonight, where are your services located and how can people reach out to you if they need help? 

Ruth Brown – One Meal:
Okay, well, there’s many, many things. So starting with our services, we have a service on Tuesday at Miranda at the Salvos building, which is in Cure Road that runs from roughly 5:00 PM till six ish. That’s where they can also get a hamper of other food. Wednesday night is in Engadine outside the community center on the Old Princess Highway, and Thursday is granola at the Revived Church in Gosport Street. And that’s, oh, hang on, INE starts at 6:30 PM and granola starts at 5:30 PM but all this information is on the website, one meal. It makes a difference. And also we have Sutherland on a Sunday at 4:00 PM just opposite Boy’s Hotel in Sutherland, in the little car park next to the railway line. 

Troy Murphy:
And more importantly, how can people support what you do either by volunteering, donating, or becoming a partner to help provide food or cooking meals, or even just delivering services to help people in need within our community here in the Shire? 

Ruth Brown – One Meal:
Yes. Look, we very much appreciate donations. People don’t seem to understand. We own a van and well, we own two vans in the Sutherland Shire, and that’s it. That’s all we own, apart from what’s in them, which are tables and chairs and everything, but cost us money not only to insure the vans and register the vans, we then have to put fuel in them. We have to buy consumables like tea, coffee, sugar. We unfortunately use disposable plates and cutlery, and we haven’t really worked out a good system to stop that and just things like that. So donations are extremely welcome. Also, companies can become a sponsor. We love people sponsoring us, and all they have to do is contact us. Either they can message our Facebook page, which is one male Sutherland Shire, or they can email us at Sutherland shire@onemeal.org au. 

Troy Murphy:
Ruth, you are an inspiration. Thank you so much for what you do for our community here in the Shire. I wish you all the best, and please consider this as an open invitation to come on the show at any time if you have a message that you need to get out to the community. Thank you so much for your time today, Ruth. 

Ruth Brown – One Meal:
Thank you, Troy.