Times are tough
By Ewan Sargent, Christchurch City Mission Communications Advisor
When Bob (not his real name) was hungry, a meal would be frozen peas put in a glass of hot water. He is a 77-year-old who was sent to our Foodbank for help by a support worker.
Along with the request came this heartbreaking photo of his fridge taken during a welfare check.
The shock of those empty shelves really brings home what it means when people tell us they are struggling and food has to be low in their priorities.
Bob has little or no money, no family in the South Island, and he battled through the Covid years alone. He finds it very hard to ask for help but he needs it now because the high cost of living has overwhelmed him. He is even trying to find a job at 77 because in his mind it’s the only way he can fix his situation.
We are giving Bob a food box every month – even when our usual rule is a maximum of six a year – because we want to make sure he is okay and because food is one of his worries we can help with.
Bob’s fridge reveals his plight
But what is really concerning to us is that Bob’s stress and struggle is faced by tens of thousands of other Christchurch people and families who are reeling from the impact of inflation, low or no wages and rising costs.
Demand in our Foodbank was up 37% in October (compared to October 2021) and our addiction counsellors, community connectors and social workers have bulging caseloads.
From what we are already seeing now, it’s clear this December and Christmas is going to be grim for many more people than in the past. That matches the reports we are seeing weekly in the media relating how hard people are finding life as basic costs climb, such as accommodation and food.
The Government’s much-needed winter energy allowances and cost of living payments have also ended. The problem is many families just make it through from week to week. They have no reserves and the smallest of financial setbacks quickly send them into crisis. They end up with a fridge as empty as Bob’s.
Our Foodbank assessment team say things like losing a job, or a health problem, or having a car that requires costly repairs, can send clients spiraling into debt.
With cars gone or wrecked, the ability to get jobs or keep jobs is impacted. They can’t make health appointments, they lose independence, bills pile up, they get stressed and their families suffer. When people become weakened by debt and despair, the problems compound as new threats of family violence, gambling, alcohol and drug overuse, and crime rise.
Christmas is the hardest time of year for a family to be in crisis because the happiness and celebration they see in others around them amplifies their own sense of failure and especially so if they have children.
But help is here – as it always has been - at the City Mission. Giving people food also frees up some money to cope with bills. Our day programmes offer company and new skills, our social workers, budget advisors, community connectors and addiction counsellors help people put plans in place that give them hope and a pathway out of their problems.
Hope and help are what we gave Derek, a client who came to us in a bad way in October and who will be in warm, safe accommodation and with family at Christmas. Derek was happy to share his story because he appreciates what we were able to do for him. His is a relatively straightforward situation, he just needed support at a critical moment in his life.
Derek was given food and care when he came to us.
He’d come back to New Zealand in September with little or no resources. He was shocked at the cost of living and prices, and all he could afford was to buy a cheap tent and pitch it in a camping ground in North Canterbury.
Already suffering from health problems he slept on the ground after his $30 inflatable bed went flat on the first night. He developed a raging chest infection and food was mostly what he could open with a can opener and heat at the camping ground kitchen.
He was getting sicker and sicker and more desperate in his tent and finally he got to a doctor (who waived the fee). Derek was referred to our emergency men’s shelter and we took him under our wing. He was fed and had a long hot shower. “Oh that was so good,” he says remembering … getting clean, having a warm bed. Feeling safe.”
“So different to a tin of spaghetti. I hadn’t seen so much food for a long while...”
And the food ... it was just simple meat and salad but to Derek it was like food from heaven. “So different to a tin of spaghetti. I hadn’t seen so much food for a long while. Things like lettuce and bread I hadn’t had contact with for a while, you know. I had been given supplements and vitamins because of the type of food I had been eating.”
As Derek regained his health with good food, sleep and antibiotics, he also gained time to think and plan for his future. Many homeless people tell us this, when we help take the load for a while, they can step away from just surviving and have time to plan.
Derek organised his driving licence and bus card, he was helped to set himself up properly with Government agencies, and, when he was ready, he was helped to move to new accommodation in Christchurch.
This Christmas our help will be needed by many people and more than ever. And with our supporters’ help we will be able to deliver it.