91% skipping meals, 60% eating expired food and 1 in 5 eating from bins – New Salvos Report exposes Cost-of-Living Emergency for Australia’s Poorest<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Salvation Army today issued an urgent warning that Australia\u2019s cost-of-living crisis is spiralling into an emergency for the nation\u2019s most marginalised people, with a new report revealing nearly one in five (19%) people surveyed saying they had eaten from bins and three in five (60%) saying they had eaten expired or spoiled food in the past 12 months.
The new report surveyed 4,400 Australians seeking emergency relief support from The Salvation Army and revealed widespread food insecurity and severe financial distress, with 91% saying they skipped meals in the past 12 months and almost one third (32%) saying this happened daily.
The report also found one third (35%) said they survived on only one meal a day and 67% said they watered down food or drinks to make them last longer.
One community member who received support from The Salvation Army said, \u201cWe starve, it\u2019s that simple. We drink water because it fills us up. We walk a bit to take our minds off this horrible life we are in, and we beg whoever we can for help.\u201d
Another community member simply said they \u201cgo without food, find thrown-out food, look in bins\u201d in order to survive.
Children are increasingly bearing the brunt of the crisis, with 35% of parents saying their children had gone to school hungry and almost 6 in 10 (59%) households with school-aged children saying kids had missed school because families could not afford transport costs in the past 12 months.
\u201cIt is deeply confronting to see so many people across our community pushed to such desperate levels of hardship, where parents are skipping meals, children are going to school hungry and people are eating spoiled food or even eating from bins simply to survive,\u201d says Major Bruce Harmer from The Salvation Army.
\u201cNo one in Australia should be forced to choose between heating their home, feeding their children or buying medication, yet this is the reality facing more and more people every single day.\u201d
The report highlighted widespread \u201cenergy poverty\u201d, with 84% of respondents going to bed early to keep warm, 63% living in darkness, relying on candles and torches, and almost half (49%) using public places such as shopping centres or public bathrooms to avoid using electricity at home.
Medical care is also increasingly out of reach, with over half (51%) unable to afford to see a doctor, dentist or optometrist, 46% unable to afford prescription medication and one quarter (25%) relying on hospital emergency departments instead of visiting a GP.
Another mum who received support from the Salvos said , \u201cWe never have enough food. We buy what is cheap and rely on help and food banks. I am very careful about our electricity use. My oldest son has been making do this year with only one school shirt. We put water in dish soap, shampoo, cleaning products, and other items to stretch them. We rarely buy milk, but when we do, we add water to make it last longer. We don\u2019t spend money on clothing. We often fill prescriptions late or don\u2019t take them daily to stretch them out further.\u201d
Further findings from the report included:
\u00b7 82% said they had gone an entire day without eating in the past year.
\u00b7 87% said they avoided using heating or cooling over the past year due to cost pressures
\u00b7 77% said they had been unable to properly heat or cool their home in the past year
\u00b7 90% have experienced being unable to afford public transport or fuel for their car
The Salvation Army is calling on Australians to support its vital work, with demand for assistance continuing to rise across homelessness, emergency relief, financial hardship, family violence, youth services and community meals. The Salvos\u2019 Red Shield Appeal is aiming to raise $41 million to support those doing it tough across the nation.
\u201cOur report surveyed thousands of people who reached out to the Salvos for emergency relief support, with 90% saying they would not have managed financially without the help they received,\u201d Major Harmer adds.
\u201cBut the need is growing rapidly and we cannot do this alone. Right now, your support can help provide food, financial assistance, safe shelter and hope to Australians doing it incredibly tough.\u201d
Across Australia last year, through The Salvation Army\u2019s network of over 400 centres and 2,000 services, the Salvos provided:*
\u00b7 Assistance to one person every 17 seconds
\u00b7 More than 1.74 million sessions of care to over 228,000 people in need
\u00b7 Over 1 million nights of safe accommodation
\u00b7 More than 1.4 million meals to those who accessed our homelessness services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
91% skipping meals, 60% eating expired food and 1 in 5 eating from bins – New Salvos Report exposes Cost-of-Living Emergency for Australia’s Poorest The Salvation Army today issued an urgent warning that Australia\u2019s cost-of-living crisis is spiralling into an emergency for the nation\u2019s most marginalised people, with a new report revealing nearly one in five (19%) people … Continue reading “New Salvos Report exposes Cost-of-Living Emergency for Australia’s Poorest”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39121"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39122,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39121\/revisions\/39122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}