To address the alarming rise in demand for food relief from Canberrans, ACTCOSS and VolunteeringACT have called on the ACT Government to prioritise the food relief sector in this year’s budget deliberations.
“Food relief has been a major theme of budget consultations between community sector organisations and the ACT Government,” ACTCOSS CEO Dr Devin Bowles said. “Listening to these voices from the frontline, it is clear that hunger has escalated dramatically in the last few years.”
Volunteering ACT’s recently released Food Relief Service Provider Snapshot showed that too many people are struggling to feed their families every day in the nation’s capital, CEO Jean Giese said.
“There are many drivers for food insecurity but the time for urgent action to address this social and economic issue is now,” Ms Giese said.
On Wednesday, the Legislative Assembly debated the Government’s Food Relief Action Plan, which the organisations said highlighted that both the community and the Assembly shared pressing concerns about food relief.
“The group experiencing need has not just grown in the last decade, it has changed its nature, with an increasing number of working Canberrans struggling to feed their families,” Dr Bowles said.
“While volunteers looking after their neighbours, supported by philanthropy, might once have been enough to ensure everyone is adequately fed, the landscape has changed.
“Canberrans expect the ACT Government play an active role in funding food relief, so that no Canberrans go hungry.
“Ensuring citizens have enough to eat is one of the most basic roles of Government.
“Given the evolving economy, it is reasonable for the Government to keep planning on how best to deliver this responsibility long-term, but until that time there is a desperate need to increase funding for emergency food relief.”
Two-thirds of organisations reported that the number of people accessing their services increased by 2025 over 2024, Ms Giese said. They also reported that their key operational challenges were insufficient food to meet demand, a lack of volunteers and rising cost of food.
“This demonstrates only some of the systemic complexities of what the sector is experiencing and why investment is critical.
“The Food Relief Action Plan is important for the food security ecosystem and for those it supports. The sector looks forward to understanding how the government intends to address the outstanding recommendations from the condensed sector consultations conducted late in 2025.”
Dr Bowles said: “Good nutrition is one of the most important investments the ACT Government can make, especially in the context of fiscal pressure and a rapidly growing health budget. Food security will reduce much greater costs in the health and justice systems.”
