City Mission sounds alarm for cash, food

THE Hobart City Mission is preparing for significant demand for its services in coming weeks and months as the wide-ranging impacts of coronavirus put the squeeze on household budgets.

The charity organisation has launched an emergency relief appeal — one month before the usual start of its annual winter appeal — to respond to the impacts of the global pandemic.

Chief executive John Stubley said the charity was seeking the support of the public to prepare for an expected surge in people coming forward for help.

“All we can do is work on the basis that a lot of people who thought they had good secure income, suddenly found the rainy day they hadn’t saved for was upon them,’’ he said.

“As much as the Government has done to provide people with basic benefits, the reality is those benefits will be less than people were earning and relying on. When it comes to the crunch and there’s no money left in the wallet, ultimately it’s us that people will turn to for a feed.”

Mr Stubley said it was expected more people would reach out for assistance as people lost their jobs and financial reserves ran out.

The appeal was calling primarily for financial support, but donations of food were also gratefully accepted, he said.

He thanked the public for its generosity in donating about 500 bags of food to the charity in recent weeks after fears were raised that the service could run out of supplies.

But he said the organisation was still having food supply issues with major supermarket chains.