Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Foodbank CEO Peter Chandler says the group is providing assistance following the Gregory District flood emergency and is ready to respond to further requests

Transcript

Foodbank CEO Peter Chandler says the group is providing assistance following the Gregory District flood emergency and is ready to respond to further requests · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: As we heard from well from the Acting Assistant Commissioner
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Danny Bacon a short time ago, there were just under
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: six hundred people staying at Howard Springs as a result
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: of being evacuated from the communities in which they live
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: due to flooding. Now joining me on the line right
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: now is Peter Chandler, who is the executive officer of
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Food Bank here in the Northern Territory. Good morning to you, Pete.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. How are you doing?
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Not too bad now, Pete? I understand that food Bank
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: is ensuring that those who have been evacuated have got
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: their food, their toilet trees as well while they're in
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: that evacuation center or the Center for National Resilience.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Look, food Bank INT is part of a wider group
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: that's managed by the Northern Territory government, and we play
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: our part. There are many others involved in this Red
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Cross for Salvation Army and so many others form part
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: of this group that come together plan throughout the year
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: and when there's an instance like this, ready to go
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: and you know, the team here put some food together
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: last week when the first evacuees were being brought into Darwin,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: and I think very wisely. The government have decided to
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: use the Howard Springs facilities, which I think is so
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: much better for evacuees than not the old, the good
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: old foss Kip of England. But when you've just got
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: hundreds of beds all in one big hall, yeah, it's
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: not there's no privacy and I think this is a
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: lot better idea and is being managed well. And I
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: think to be honest, this group, as well as government
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: learn every time that we do something like this, they
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: get better at it.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely so, Pete, what kind of assistance is being
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: provided at this point at the Center for National Resilience?
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: But also has Food Bank had to assist any of
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: the other communities that may sort of be not entirely
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: cut off, but it might be finding it a little
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: bit more difficult to access food at this time.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Look that there's two sides to this. There's the
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: everyday stuff that three Bank NT does and that could
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: be helping people, you know in the Greater day and
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: area right across the top end. And we're sending food
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: out the communities. You know. Our truck went down to
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Catherine last week and a lot of that food gets
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: distributed around communities around the Catherine area, so that work
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: continues and goes on and we respond where we're asked to.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: And it's the same thing with government at the moment
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: if they pick up the phone noun we need a
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: whole lot of tooth baste or a whole lot of
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: tooth bruses, or we needed additional food where he ready
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: to respond. What we need to do, and like all
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: of the other not for profits that are involved in this,
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: is to be ready to react and also be ready
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: to be adaptable because it's always a changing I'm going
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: to use the word feast, the changing feast, because you
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: never know what's going to be asked for next. We've
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: got another briefing today and there'll be more requests, I'm sure,
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: and we'll be there, ready to ready to act.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Are you having any difficulties at the moment? Is food
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Bank having any difficulties at the moment in terms of
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: that rail line near Tenant Creek and the fact that
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: it's damaged, or any supply issues.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: We've got sufficient supplies at the moment, but we have
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: put This is where I pay credit to our interstate cousins.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, most people think of food bankers, what we
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: do here but feed banks right around the country and
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: we are collective and so whenever we as a small
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: operator we need back up or support in any way,
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: we're always reaching out to save Feedbanks South Australia or
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: the federated head which is feed Bank Australia. We pick
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: up the phone and say, guys, we need this. They
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: start to revel the phones and all of a sudden,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: we've got food that turns up here. We get excellent
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: support from Food Bank Australia and Food Banks South Australia
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: in particular.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Well that is good to hear, Pete. Just on a
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: more sort of broad level, I guess we know that
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: at the moment, cost of living is high on everybody's agenda.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: As we see those interest rates rise, I think we're
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: expecting that there's probably going to be another interest rate
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: rise this week, cost of fuel, cost of food, it
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: is all really quite difficult at this point. How have
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: things been going for food Bank and how has the
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: demand for your services been going.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: It's increasing all the time, Katie. You know we can
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: go back and give you stats that before COVID we
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: were putting enough food every month for about thirty five
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: thousand meals in the community that grew to about fifty
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: thousand a month through COVID, But since COVID's kind of
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: become a seeming mean thing of the past, or we
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: just manage it better. You know, we still are being
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: asked to put out about fifty three thousand meals a
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: month at the moment, and our foods for fifty three
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: thousand meals, So it's increasing. And when I used to
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: be surprised that or who were the people that were
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: reaching out from time to time, I'm not anymore because
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: you just don't know. You can't judge what someone's personal lives.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: They may drive a BMW today, for instance, but they're
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: sure to cash. They've got no food in the house,
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: and they need help, and it might only just be
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: a one off. You know. The perfect scenario for me
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: is it happened a few months ago where a gentleman
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: coming and I thought he was a well to do bloke,
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: and he was asked for a bit of food because
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: he was dead cashless at the time. And you know,
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: a few weeks later, he turns up and he wants
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: to volunteer because he felt that we helped him through
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: a really tough time. He wanted to give back some hours.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: And I think that's community right there, and whenever we
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: do need help, we get it from the community. Our
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: volunteers are our absolute backbone at this organization, and of
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: course the staff and I mean, look, I've lost a
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: couple of gems recently with Paul and Peter moving on
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: to other challenges and so forth, and they were just
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: amazing for this organization. But the community supports what we
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: do and that will continue and I'm sure and look,
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: I would ask again if people can either donate food
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: or donate cash to this organization. It all stays here
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: in the Northern Territory territory and is helping territories.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: I mean, fifty three thousand meals a month. It is
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: a phenomenal number. Pete. I was reading an article or
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: I was actually watching something last week where the Food
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Bank CEO nationally had been saying exactly what you've just
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: pointed out, that you know that people are sort of
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: putting their you know, putting their mortgages first and making
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: sure that they are still able to put a roof
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: over the heads of their families, and then they're seeking
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: out the assistance of the likes of food Bank because
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: things are so tough right now.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, and you know the things we are asked to
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: do more and more every day, provide more and more food.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: And yet you know we're doing it on if you
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: like less and less budgets, or we're needing to get
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: those budgets to stretch further. The truth is you've still
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: got to pay the power, You've still got to pay
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: the rent. And people are the same in the community,
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: and the same stresses that affect people affect us as
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: an organization, and so more and more people are reaching
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: out and sadly, I think we're only scratching the surface,
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: and I think we're going to get more requests before
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: it starts to ease up. I will do over the
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: next becoming months as interest rates continue to go. And
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: you're right, people are ensuring those bills are paid first,
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: and sadly there's not much less left to get some
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: food on the table.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Pete. If there is people listening out there this morning
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: that are thinking, do you know what I actually do
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: need to come and see food bank? You know, I
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: need a bit of a hand up. What's the best
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: way for them to do so? Or if there is
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: somebody out there listening, who thinks, do you know what?
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: I really want to donate to these guys. You do
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: an incredible job and I want to be able to
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: support you.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Number of sites around Darwen that people can access food.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: But you've also got to remember that ninety percent of
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: the food that goes through a food bank through Free
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: Bank gets distributed through other charities. So you know Catholic
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: Care for instance, or one of our biggest partners, where
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: if someone goes to Catholic Care to get food, nine
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: times out of tend that food has come from Food Bank.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: So there's a wide distribution and the ability for people.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: But even on Saturday mornings, we open the warehouse here
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: for people that are really struggling and coming here and
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: grab some food. So the warehouse is open six days
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: a week. We would never turn someone away if they
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: walked in off the street. But percent of our food
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: gets our schools and out to other charities. But still
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: people can come here to the warehouse not a problem.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Well, Peter Chandler, the executive officer for Food Bank here
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory, we always appreciate your time. Thanks
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: so much for having a chat with us this morning.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: You're welcome Katie, God bless thank you,