The West Footscray Neighbourhood house is asking locals to donate to its community pantry and wardrobe, to keep up with the tough winter period.
Manager Marianne Wangira said the demand has not been consistent, which has been difficult in terms of keeping it stocked.
“We might go for weeks with nobody coming in, other weeks we will see a lot of people coming in,” she said.
“Over the last two to three weeks, we’ve noticed quite a large increase in the number of people accessing our community pantry.”
Ms Wangira said stock came in one day and the pantry was virtually empty two days later.
“The increasing cost of food is affecting people, among other expenses,” she said.
The community wardrobe only opened six to eight weeks ago, in this short time Ms Wangira has noticed the demand grow.
“I think often families will buy things for their kids first at their own expense, parents are looking after their kids first and they’re not buying things that they need for themselves,” she said.
“We can see people are really finding it hard, the demographic of people coming in are not the type of families you would look at and think that they needed assistance.”
“Families that have dual incomes are now struggling to cater for those extra costs on top of the necessities.”
The neighbourhood house is looking for non-perishable food items such as cereals and pasta sauce, and clothing items like jumpers and coats.
“All we ask is that people take what they genuinely need, we’re not charging anyone, we’re not going to ask you any questions , we will send you on your way with a bag full of goodies to help get through.”
Jennifer Pittorino
