A local campaign hopes to make sure that families in need have something special on the table this Christmas.

Yuletide should be a time of food and jollity — but in this cost-of-living crisis, the festive season may be far from festive for many Canberra families.

Working households, unable to afford basic meals, have struggled to put food on the table, and turned to food pantries for help. Faced with unprecedented demand, those same pantries run out of food and are even forced to turn clients away.

“So much of Christmas is about food — the Christmas pudding, the roast turkey, the prawns by the pool — all those fabulous things,” Genevieve Jacobs, CEO of community foundation Hands Across Canberra, says.

“But for many people, it will be a case of: ‘I have no idea where anything is going to come from; I don’t know how to put food on my table in an ordinary week, much less how to meet my family’s expectations at a time when everybody else is celebrating, and I’ve just got nothing left in my pocket, since the wallet is empty.’ It’s heartbreaking.”

Hands Across Canberra has partnered with Hundreds for Thousands — which has raised more than $450,000 since 2019 — to provide 1,000 households with $100 Woolworths grocery vouchers, distributed through 10 food pantries across the ACT, Queanbeyan, and Yass.

To donate, visit https://100s-for-thousands-25.raiselysite.com/.

“Giving people in need a grocery voucher gives them the freedom to choose the foods they like to eat,” Hundreds for Thousands founder Natalie Tanchevski said. “It gives people the dignity they deserve during their toughest times.”

“Food hampers are useful — but it’s dried goods; it might not be the food people choose for themselves,” Ms Jacobs said. “It often means that families can’t have fresh fruit and vegetables. When people enter food insecurity, they become very dependent on highly processed carbohydrates — instant noodles, packaged foods. That’s not great for people’s health. Around Christmas, it’s not how you want to celebrate.”

The vouchers can only be used for fresh food; they cannot be used for tobacco or alcohol.

The community pantries ensure donations stay local.

“Because these are trusted providers, [the vouchers] will go to people in the community who are already part of those nets of service and care,” Ms Jacobs said. “It’s a really good way of making sure that the vouchers go to people who are genuinely in need and whom the providers already know.”

Every public donation will be doubled: a group of “super donors” will match each contribution up to $5,000 per community pantry. Every cent raised goes directly to the vouchers and the pantries — there are no administration costs.

As of Thursday, the appeal had raised $23,229 — in effect, $46,458: enough to cover almost 500 families.

Food insecurity is an urgent and growing need, Ms Jacobs said. Canberra is a wealthy city, but an expensive one; life on the edge is particularly hard here. Some 40,000 Canberrans (including 10,000 children) live in poverty — many fully employed:

“Struggling to keep a roof over their kids’ heads, to pay all the bills, perhaps to meet special needs costs for their children, perhaps struggling with disabilities,” Ms Jacobs said.

“When all those things come together, people can be left with $5 to $10 a week on the table for food — and so they are increasingly dependent on pantries.”

Food pantries have shifted from supplementing food to supplying most of it. Once the Holy Cross Tuckerbox, for instance, would provide 20 per cent of a household’s weekly food needs; now it meets 80 per cent. Fresh food is scarce, as pantries cannot store perishables such as fruit, vegetables, milk, and cheese.

For many, a single crisis — a family breakdown, sudden rent increase, loss of housing, or arrival in Australia without support — can tip them over what Ms Jacobs calls “the Canberra cliff”.

“This is a city where a large number of people are on comfortable, secure salaries. That means the cost of living is quite high; rentals are very high. If people fall off that cliff, it’s a long way to the bottom.”

The campaign will run until Christmas. Ms Jacobs encouraged people to donate early, as vouchers take time to organise and distribute.

She also urged Canberrans to give locally — we are among the most generous people in Australia, but four-fifths of donations go outside the ACT.

“We have a presumption that need can’t be too high here,” Ms Jacobs said. “We assume that everything is OK and that there is no real need here in the ACT. That’s simply not true…

“Our neighbours are struggling in a way that might not be readily apparent to you, because you live in a place where things seem comfortable and easy.”

She encouraged Christmas parties and workplaces to chip in and make a small donation.

“Sling us a bit of help, and know that it’s going to stay here, and you’re going to make a difference to your friends, your neighbours, your colleagues, the people down the street in your own suburb…

“I would be just thrilled to know on Christmas Day that there are 1,000 families in Canberra that are sitting down to a nicer lunch together, some kind of celebratory gathering — that we’ve been able to give hope and community spirit to people who otherwise have a pretty bleak, tough time in this very prosperous town.”

The need will not end with Christmas; instead, the new year will bring “an influx, a new wave” of people reaching out to food pantries and charities for support, Ms Tanchevski said.

“A lot of people will try to push through Christmas, to use what they have to put food on the table and make Christmas special for the kids… Come January, it’s back to school, and a lot of costs start to build up.”

To that end, she has set up a named fund under the banner of Hands Across Canberra.

“It’s important to keep raising money throughout the year and have those vouchers ready to go at a moment’s notice when the pantries or the charities need them.”

“We are definitely in a cost-of-living crisis that is very tough for a number of people [and] I don’t see an end to that in the near future,” Ms Jacobs said. “What I do see is an enormous growth of community spirit and willingness to help.”