Call for food donations

Appeal helps those in need at Christmas

A COMMUNITY services organisation is urging Geelong residents to lend a helping hand to the city’s struggling residents in the lead-up to Christmas.

In the 2017-18 financial year, 3257 households in the Geelong region turned to Uniting for crisis relief support, inclusing housing, food, education and material support.

Single-parent families sought help the most, followed by individuals with no children.

Uniting’s Barwon senior manager Des Younghusband said Geelong’s housing affordability issues, stagnated wage growth and the high cost of utility bills are pushing more locals into financial crisis, according to recent Uniting in Barwon crisis entry point data.

“The cost of rent is going up while wages have dropped. Many locals can only find cas- ual or part-time work. The knock-on effect is quite simply, people cannot afford to buy food, pay their rent or pay their bills on time,” Mr Younghusband said.

“It is not just people on welfare that are asking for assistance.

“Underemployment, casualisation of the workforce and rising costs of living mean that some people who have jobs still cannot afford to make ends meet.”

The number of families in crisis across Geelong and neighbouring areas is set to grow amid poor living circumstances and financial pressures, Uniting VicTas said.

Uniting will be collecting for its Food for Families appeal to help struggling locals stock up on food.

“We’re going to have collection points at the sites across Geelong where people can donate food,” Mr Younghusband said.

“What we’ve found is not everyone likes or can actually eat Christmas food ... we’re also looking for staples like tuna and rice and long-life milk, pasta sauce, tinned fruit and vegetables, cereal, tea and coffee — all of those sorts of things are great to make available to people.”