Why we’ve had to reduce food services

Just the other day, someone pointed out very strongly that relationship was the only way we were going to get anywhere with the financial challenges we were facing.

I was taken aback at the time as the “R-Value” (Relationship) is something I place a high value on within our team, organisation and in my personal life. In saying that, there will always be room for improvement in a world of outcomes, deadlines, and distraction

People and relationships are what motivate us as an organisation. It’s why we exist. Our mission is to deliver Food and Hope, to ensure that the 1 in 5 Tasmanians facing food insecurity can access healthy and nutritious food when they need it.

That’s why our current decision to reduce service due to rising operating costs is a tough one to make. It’s painful because our decision directly affects people. However, our decisions are such that we want to be able to provide something rather nothing whilst we raise additional funds to enable us to meet increasing demands in these tough times for many Tasmanians.

I appeal to every Tasmanian who has available resources right now, can you please help us?

Loaves and Fishes Tasmania supports almost 350 community agencies across Tasmania. Our partner agencies collectively feed 16,000 Tasmanians every week. They are now telling us they’re supporting more and more people who have ever needed help before as cost of living pressures and COVID disruptions drive more people into poverty.

What does it look like for Loaves and Fishes Tasmania? Currently, it costs us $ 1.3 million dollars per year to run our organisation. This budget is what we currently are trying to work within. But demand is far greater.

Double the income, double the impact

We could immediately distribute twice the amount of food every week if we could double our income.

We currently receive $490,000 per year from the Tasmanian State Government. We receive an additional $150,000 from training and work-for-the-dole subsidies. We currently receive no funding from the Federal Government for emergency food relief. We raise the remaining $650,000 through donations, events and paid social enterprise initiatives such as catering and commercial food production contracts.

In this current economic climate, bridging the funding the gap is becoming a tougher gig.

We urgently need more help from both the state and federal governments, otherwise we will have to further reduce our services.

Please, if you have the financial means to help, if you are doing OK, I’m appealing to you to do your bit to assist a fellow Tasmanian doing it tough by DONATING now.

I do want to genuinely acknowledge the Tasmanian State Government’s current financial support. It is appreciated. Loaves and Fishes recognises that we must play our part in dealing with every social challenge that we face. We have demonstrated our strong support for the Tasmanian Government’s Relief to Resilience Food Security Strategy to which we have volunteered time and expertise. If the recommendations of this strategy are appropriately resourced, it will support food insecure Tasmanians for many years to come. If it is not, it will simply be rhetoric and amount to nothing.

By CEO Andrew Hillier