Manukau food bank records surge in demand for food parcels
A south Auckland foodbank has seen calls for food parcels triple during the latest lockdown.
Manukau Urban Māori Authority supports Māori living in urban environments, and runs a foodbank at the Ngā Whare Waatea Marae at Calthorp Close in Favona.
Spokesperson Sarah Sparks said staff at its base were dealing with a surge in requests in south Auckland.
“We’ve had triple the number of phone calls to our 0800 number for the foodbank since we went into alert level 3,” she said.
“On average we have an allocation of 40 food parcels a day. But last week that was increased to 70 a day and we were still really stretched.”
A University of Auckland study found Māori and Pacific communities in areas such as south Auckland would be at greater risk from a second wave of Covid-19.
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