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A large shed filled with dusty cardboard boxes is all that remains of Richard Byers’ family business.
“We have all these plants and flowers, we have boxes and boxes and boxes of them, we have thousands of them in storage that we’re just trying to clear out.”
He ran a small wholesale business in South Australia for over a decade, earning more than enough to support his family.
Then his outlook changed.
“I had prostate cancer, which was a shock, and I had surgery and luckily they got it all, it was inside the prostate rather than outside, so the surgeon told me I could give you at least 15 years, Richard.”
Although Richard took time to recover, his business suffered.
“The recovery lasted about three months and it affected the business terribly. When we went back to our customers they all just said ‘sorry Richard, we bought elsewhere now and couldn’t get it from you, so we went elsewhere.’ .'”
The Byers family are now looking to sell their property a few hours north of Adelaide and are cutting back on spending.
“We went out to restaurants a lot and you know we had a perfect life, I guess that would be the way to describe it. I don’t even remember the last time we went out for a meal.”
Every fortnight, Richard and his wife Kimberly drive 40 minutes to a nearby town to do their shopping in a mobile food bank van. The couple both enjoy cooking but Kimberly tends to take charge in the kitchen.
“The last meal I made was shepherd’s pie, the hash usually costs $2.50 to $3 sometimes, with the free vegetables it’s like a $3 to $5 meal for three people and it usually makes two meals, for us You can’t usually buy this stuff in a mall By the time you buy ground meat, which usually costs 13 dollars, a bag of potatoes, depending on what you get, can cost. 4 to 5 dollars, and then carrots if that’s the case Odd Bunch, it’s one to two dollars, so it’s at least half the price of the meal that I can make from the food bank, which is very convenient. , especially when you have a growing teenager.
The Byers are among a growing number of Australians who rely on charity for food. The country’s largest food aid agency, Foodbank, says millions of Australian households face food insecurity.
Brianna Casey is the national CEO of the charity.
“We are seeing households across Australia making impossible choices, between heating and eating, between being able to feed themselves and their children.”
The Food Bank’s annual hunger report analyzes data from across the country to identify where help is most needed, and says single-parent households are most at risk.
More than two-thirds of these households face food insecurity and 41 percent regularly skip meals or go entire days without food.
“We see parents skipping meals, because they are trying to protect their children from the realities of food insecurity, and they are making the most extraordinary sacrifices.”
Australian charities continue to face historically high demand for food assistance.
Food-insecure households are much more likely to shop with charities, with a 53 percent increase in the number of families seeking help.
Increasingly, family and friends are no longer able to help fill the void.
“Before we were doing just fine, we had a business and were able to support other people, so we were usually the ones giving help, but we got to the point where we had no choice, we needed help, and it took a lot of courage to say ‘hey, I need help’, but everyone was really lovely and the food bank staff were really really… they didn’t didn’t make you feel uncomfortable.
As more families face the rising cost of living, Brianna Casey says government funding is essential.
“We know that recovery from the cost of living crisis will not happen overnight; we are prepared for this to take months or even years. And we need to ensure that food relief organizations are adequately funded and supported to ensure we can keep our arms around the community throughout this time.
