The initiative was held at St Matthew-in-the-City, and the event aimed to assist those facing homelessness and food challenges.

Morgan McCann, Head of New World for Foodstuffs North Island, and Steve McClean, Owner Operator of New World Orewa, cooked a three-course dinner for 150 guests at St Matthew-in-the-City.

The duo, with community support, raised over $57,000 specifically for the Auckland City Mission.

The entire Cook Off event contributed a commendable $246,000 to the Mission's cause.

"The Mission can only help people in greatest need with the support of our community.

"Morgan and Steve's commitment to raising funds through the Cook-Off and their ongoing support of the Mission are outstanding. I'm so grateful to the two of them for stepping up to help in this way," says Missioner Helen Robinson.

McCann who had never cooked for 150 people before, said he initially found the experience rather daunting.

However, by the end of the night and by working alongside renowned chefs Petra Galler, Michael Meredith and Mike Van de Elzen, he'd gained newfound insight into the work of a chef.

More familiar with cooking for groups, McClean, who enjoys giving back and supporting the local community described the experience as "truly humbling'.

Foodstuffs is the co-operative behind PAK'nSAVE, New World, and Four Square supermarkets in the North Island.

Source: Scoop

"The more hungry we are, the more we will see unrest," says Auckland City Missioner Helen Robinson.

"Thousands and thousands of us just don't have enough money for food."

She should know. Over the past 10 years, demand for City Mission food parcels has risen each year.

"It's gone from 9,000 to 65,000. That's a huge number of people suffering food insecurity.

"Food prices rose 12 percent in the year to April. That's the largest increase since 1987."

Robinson had hoped last week's Budget might help.

So had Susan St John, economist and Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) spokesperson.

It didn't.

CPAGs view

The Budget is policy makers' biggest opportunity, says St John. They can change the systems that lock whanau into poverty. They can also opt to keep the status quo.

"Budget 2023 was short-sighted," she says.

"It didn't give money to families struggling to meet basic living costs. It's terrifying it didn't address food insecurity's rise.

"This budget should have delivered a reformed and effective Working for Families.

"It is tiresome to hear that 'allowing low-income families to have sufficient income to feed their families would be inflationary'. It would not - in fact, it would make the economy work better," the economist says.

"Poverty is stealing families' dreams and there was little in the Budget to change this."

Changing policies can work

St John's recommendations to immediately alleviate the problem involve two things:

• The in-work tax credit (IWTC) being folded into the Family Tax Credit, to form one payment for all low-income children.

This would be a targeted and very efficient way to reduce child poverty, she says. It offers a higher level of support only to those who currently do not get the IWTC.

St John says it would cost about $500m per year.

Her other suggestion addresses poverty traps for middle- and low-income families in paid work:

• income assistance abatement thresholds must be raised and rates of abatement cut from 27 percent to 20 percent.

At present they face impossible "clawbacks", she says.

For each dollar they earn over a very low threshold, they may receive only a few cents. This is because income assistance abates (reduces) so quickly in several domains that it keeps them in poverty traps.

Victoria University's Kate Prickett is also concerned about the Budget's failure to make systematic changes for families.

She's the Director of the Roy McKenzie Centre for the Study of Families and Children.

Targets to lift children out of poverty aren't being met, Prickett says.

"We're not going to make further dents in child poverty without implementing bold support for those families being left behind."

She suggests helping:

• working families teetering on the poverty line
• Pacific families who may be less likely to qualify for support because they don't have residency status, despite contributing to the economy and their communities
• families unable to work, or whose work may be limited due to care needs (eg for whanau with disabilities)

This week's Budget feels woefully inadequate, she says.

Source

• 1News
• The Spinoff
• RNZ
• Voxy

The report says each high cost client costs at least $500,000 in lifetime services, costing taxpayers $6.5 billion in total.

Council of Christian Social Services director Trevor McGlinchey says he supports the principle of handing control of budgets for needy clients to local communities, but he warns that focusing purely on the 10,000 needy individuals or nuclear families misses the need to build the strength of the wider whanau and community around them.

Auckland City Missioner Dame Diane Robertson says the report proposes new layers of bureaucracy and "navigators" to coordinate different services, when the best answer would be to provide a single integrated service for each client in need.

She says mission research with 100 needy families last year found that families did actually understand the system and did not need "navigators". They simply needed help with the basics of adequate food, housing and income so that they had time and energy to tackle other issues such as mental health or addictions.

"We need to rethink," she says.

The new report is part of a package of Government initiatives aimed at encouraging schools, doctors and other social services to work together to help families with complex issues such as family violence and addictions.

Other initiatives include children's teams, which already allocate a "lead professional" to coordinate services for families with children, and Whanau Ora, which appoints "navigators" to help families develop whanau plans and bring in services to help them achieve those plans.

Sources

• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: screen shot assets.documentcloud.org

She would stay on to assist the mission through the busy Christmas period.
The charity provides health and social services to poor people in Auckland.

Dame Diane said she was unable to say what she will be doing next but hoped to continue to serve the community.
"It does feel a little bit like leaving home," she said. Continue reading and also Nothing impossible for City Missioner

However, she says what is ultimately needed is a change in the way government agencies work. The report, commissioned by the Children's Commissioner and released by an expert advisory group, makes 78 recommendations to help eradicate child poverty.

They include passing on child support to sole parents on benefits, issuing warrants of fitness for rental housing, boosting the Food in Schools programme and offering low-interest loans to low-income families.

Auckland City Missioner Diane Robertson says she welcomes the report, but we need to dig even deeper for solutions.

Continue reading