Charities stretched

A plea for businesses to step up

It’s not about wanting charity, it’s a matter of desperately needing it.

Auckland foodbanks are coping with demand 12 times higher than last year, when Covid first struck, as families’ resources are drained by the three-month Delta lockdown.

A perfect storm of pride, embarrassment and no income means more and more Auckland families are living in poverty. Families who never sought help before are now having to.

This week the Milford Foundation announced a $501,000 donation to the Manukau Urban Maori Authority (Muma), The Fono and The Village Community Services Trust, where former All Black Sir Michael Jones is a stalwart (the extra $1000 is so the total amount can be divided by three).

Only a couple of months ago the foundation gave $240,000 to the same three bodies, an indication of how swiftly the need is growing.

Jones, whose Village Community Services Trust was one of the recipients, said demand for food parcels in the second lockdown had increased by up to 500 per cent.

But what really stood out was the broader range of people affected this time.

‘‘What has been more concerning has been the avalanche of families and individuals who would normally not have to resort to a foodbank becoming increasingly dependent on foodbank services,’’ he said.

The foodbank sector across Auckland was struggling to stay on top of rising demand.

It’s a desperate situation, with foodbanks even going into the community to seek out those too proud to admit they need help.

They try to detect those who can’t pay their bills, to spot homes that seem to have had their electricity cut off.

Many families barely got through the Covid hit of 2020, only for the Delta variant to come calling in 2021 and wipe out what little they had left.

Adding to the need to find families in need is the ability of Delta to spread quickly, sending families

into isolation, so they can’t get out for food.

Muma chief executive Wyn Osborne (Ngati Pa¯ keha¯ ), says 60 per cent of those isolated for a positive test were Ma¯ ori.

‘‘We are getting food to them because they can’t get out of their whare,’’ Osborne says.

Muma acts as a logistics hub for several Manukau marae, which have been unable to handle the demand of their wha¯ nau. The call on food parcels is around 3000-5000 per week, Osborne estimates.

He is grateful for The Milford

Foundation help.

‘‘It’s enabled us to support the marae, to get kai into the hands of their wha¯ nau.’’

The Fono marketing and communication manager Frank Koloi has numbers which show a ninefold increase in need in just two months.

Since August 18, The Fono has handed out 30,920 parcels, which helped feed 55,000 adults and 34,000 children, in all parts of Auckland.

Just 469 parcels went out in week one, two months later it was 3525.

Milford Foundation chief executive Bryce Marsden and trustee Sarah Norrie paint the $501,000 donation as a no-brainer.

Marsden says there is a real need ‘‘to put a bit of Christmas cheer into families at a time when for a lot of us it’s to get together with families, good food, good wine and the odd present’’. ‘‘They don’t want to ask for help. These people have been self-sufficient. You know, they’ve always looked after their family, and now they just simply can’t.

‘‘These are good people who didn’t think they needed it, they didn’t need it before, and they didn’t make it. Now they just need to get over this hump.’’

Norrie says the circumstances now are unique.

‘‘It’s very different to how it’s been in the past. There are wha¯ nau lining up for food bags – for food help – that have never done it before, never expected to do this,’’ she says.

‘‘A lot of the communities that have been impacted are hardworking shift workers, casuals and contractors.

‘‘Obviously with the lockdowns that work stopped and so whilst they’ve always worked hard to support their families they couldn’t as there was no work.

‘‘So the need for support has grown exponentially, and the families needing support are ones that have never been seen

‘‘These are good people who didn’t think they needed it, they didn’t need it before, and they didn’t make it. Now they just need to get over this hump.’’ Bryce Marsden, above

before.’’

Milford Asset Management cofounder Brian Gaynor says stock exchange companies had flourished in the past 15 years, and could do more charity work.

In his view, New Zealand companies spend less of their profit in that area than their overseas counterparts.

‘‘There’s no hard and fast rules regarding these things, it’s an ethical or a moral judgment,’’ Gaynor says.

‘‘It’s a question of attitude. Some people will say ‘I work incredibly hard, I’m supposed to be rewarded for that, I deserve this’. It comes back to the attitude of the directors, and the company.

‘‘Others will say ‘I’m part of the community, it helped get me where I am, I will give back’. They’ve got no requirement to do that.

‘‘But the rich are getting richer, the divide is opening, and it could be argued there is a social responsibility to look at the fragmentation that is causing.

‘‘There’s a general worldwide movement in that direction. Companies around the world are changing the view to ‘we have a responsibility to our staff, our customers, our company and our shareholders’. It appears to me our companies are slower in doing that.’’

Stock exchange company Mainfreight does a lot of ‘‘in kind’’ charity work and declares only money donated under the legislation, group managing director Don Braid says, listing a wide range of initiatives supported by the company.

‘‘We have pretty strict criteria around funding for charity, which is targeted at the education of underprivileged children.’’

The Sunday Star-Times will next week look more fully at the charity sector, support for it by the leading corporates, and whether having 28,000 charities dissipates money too thinly.

Norrie says the successful must help build a stronger society.

‘‘We are in a fortunate position to be able to help others,’’ she says.

‘‘We recognise just growing an individual’s wealth is not enough, It’s bigger than that.

‘‘We need to look at what’s happening down the road and in all the corners of New Zealand, for New Zealand to ultimately be successful.’’