Farrelly says the people in need this Christmas are those who ve never had to ask for a handout before. They have fixed costs; fixed rent that s very high, or fixed loan repayments and they ve lost an income. Those people are desperate, he said. The demographic coming to us is primarily women with children, frequently single mums.
Despite the increased need, however, for the first time Farrelly feels the community and the Government are backing them in the fight to eradicate food insecurity. A year or two ago I would have felt very lonely in this space, but jeez - we feel we ve got a whole lot of support behind us now from the community, he said.