If you think your weekly supermarket bill is sizeable, spare a thought for the Salvation Army foodbank in Dunedin.
Corps officer and community ministries director Captain Nicky Hargest said the charity sometimes this winter spent about $1000 a week to supply the foodbank.
A normal shop was about $500 a week but this winter some $1000 shops were needed to "top up" the foodbank.
The spending covered a shop for "basics" such as baked beans and spaghetti, pasta sauce, breakfast cereal, milk powder and school lunch items, such as muesli bars.
Foodbank clients had more "complex needs" than before, resulting in them requiring more food parcels for more time to get their issues to a manageable level, such as paying off debt with a power retailer, Capt Hargest said.
The clients in need were from across the community, she said.
A sector on the rise were "the working poor" — clients who were in full-time employment and struggling to pay the bills, she said.
Foodbank co-ordinator Pete Lobb said the clients accepting food from the bank appreciated people who gave goods that suited their needs, such as tins with tear-off lids for the homeless residents who did not own a can opener.
"It’s the simple stuff that makes a difference."
