The custom-built-van is fitted with a shower, two washing machines and a clothes dryer, and open to use for anyone living without these necessities.

Kris F'afoi, the associate minister for housing, and local member of parliament Paul Eagle were among those attending.

The Mayor Hutt City Ray Wallace represented Wellington's mayors.

Wellington City Missioner Murray Edridge explained some of the history of Orange Sky.

The van was then blessed, and some refreshments were provided.

The Orange Sky charity has 29 vans operating in Australia and is almost a year into its operations in New Zealand.

Since launching in Auckland, Orange Sky has washed more than 18 tonnes of laundry and provided 1900 showers.

Co-founder Lucas Patchett said they were considering expansion plans to Christchurch and other parts of the country.

He said the charity has snowballed into something much bigger than he could ever have imagined since the first wash on the streets of Brisbane in 2014.

"It's a basic human right to feel clean and to feel connected", he said.

Patchett and his best mate Nic Marchesi built the first free mobile laundry in their old van to help the homeless.

In 2016 they were awarded joint Young Australians of the Year for their social entrepreneurship.

Marchesi describes himself and Patchett as "two normal everyday blokes who had a crazy idea".

They had previously volunteered at food vans and other outreach programs while still at school and had a passion for helping the homeless.

Source

• Supplied
• nzherald.co.nz
• wikipedia.org
• Image: Supplied

It is holding the clinic once a week over July at the army's Waitakere centre.

We want to respond to those most in need and we will also continue to support people, advocate for them to ensure that they do get other services, but this is something we are just trialling and to really take the edge of those in most need," Director of community ministries Jono Bell said.

From late 2018, the Rapid Relief Team (RRT) has provided Papakura police with emergency food boxes that contain enough food for a family of four to live on for 24 hours. Read more

It says despite the country becoming wealthier, many Kiwis don't share the prosperity.

The Salvation Army says the number of families seeking food parcels from its 65 food banks jumped 12 percent this year.

It says demand had held steady for five years before this increase.

The Salvation Army calls the report Kei a Tatou, It is us.

It monitors progress in 25 areas and measures the past decade's social and economic equality.

New Zealand did well between 2013 and 2017 as a result of the economy growing by 14 percent.

The number of jobs grew 15 percent and per-capita GDP grew 13 percent, adjusted for inflation.

But the report finds that there was no big change in child poverty rates. Youth unemployment stayed around 20 percent.

The report's author, Alan Johnson, says everyone isn't sharing the strong economic growth.

He says there has been "frightening" rise in the number of families falling into food poverty.

"That's the true cost of rent rises and slow wage growth on our most vulnerable families," he says.

The people behind the figures

The Salvation Army's Social Policy & Parliamentary Unit's director urged the report's readers to remember it's about people.

Lt. Colonel Ian Hutson says, "Behind these statistics are people … sometimes thriving … while on other occasions they are isolated, living with extreme levels of stress, in poverty and highly marginal."

He says New Zealand can't separate its poorest people while pretending they don't matter.

While the report describes a desperate situation, it did hold positive signs.

It shows New Zealand is closing educational achievement gaps.

It is increasing participation in early childhood education.

There are reductions in infant mortality, teenage pregnancy and youth suicide.

The report found economic growth had not led to fewer children in poverty and furthermore it didn't reduce the number of young people without meaningful work.

Methamphetamine-related offences grew by 80 per cent in the past three years.

It found that government policies caused the prison population to surge to record levels. This despite a consistent drop in crime.

Sources:

• NZ Herald
• Salvation Army

Image credit:

• Salvation Army

"This was a humbling experience during which we felt deeply Christ's call to sit and walk alongside those who struggle or find themselves on the margins of society," they said in their statement issued at the conclusion of the meeting.

Chris Farrelly, Auckland City Missioner, said it was a "wonderful event having the Bishops at the Mission supporting the work of the Mission in this way."

"The Auckland City Mission relies on the generosity of such people to provide the food for the daily meals, served 365 days a year," he said.

The bishops were attending the annual week-long meeting of the Executive Committee of the Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania.

Previously the Bishops had visited to De La Salle College in South Auckland. They said the highlight of that visit was the Mass for the entire community. "The boys' enthusiastic participation in the liturgy uplifted our hearts."

The Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania is made up of the Bishop's Conferences in Australia, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, New Zealand, and the Pacific Island nations (CEPAC).

The bishops attending the meeting were:

Archbishop Sir John Cardinal Ribat MSC (President), Archbishop of Port Moresby, PNG.
Bishop Robert McGuckin (Deputy President) Bishop of Toowoomba, Australia.
Archbishop Michel Calvet SM, Archbishop of Noumea, New Caledonia.
Bishop Colin Campbell, Bishop of Dunedin, New Zealand.
Bishop Charles Drennan, Bishop of Palmerston North, New Zealand.
Bishop Vincent Long OFM Conv, Bishop of Parramatta, Australia.

There will be a plenary assembly of the Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania in Port Moresby in April 2019.

The theme will be ‘Care of our Common Home of Oceania: A sea of possibilities'.

Source

Supplied: NZCBC, Auckland City Mission

McIntyre is the director of Downtown Community Ministry (DCM) in Wellington.

DCM's main focus is on ending homelessness and supporting people to get access to income, but she says putting money in the hat does not work.

"The complexity around poverty and the amount of people who are really poor and the degree to which they are poor, that's what I am seeing."

"I am not surprised for one second that that is reflected over in street begging."

"Whichever way you look at it, every single person who is out there street begging is poor."

But giving money and food directly to beggars is not the answer, she says.

DCM works alongside Ngati Kahungunu and the Soup Kitchen dispatching outreach teams who approach those on the street offering help to link them with the services they need.

Stuff reporter Bess Manson describes how at 9am McIntyre joins her staff and those who have come off the street for their morning karakia outside the inner city Luke's Lane premises.

The congregation sings Hallelujah in Te Reo. A heavenly sound rising from a dishevelled choir.

After a prayer, they all head inside. Some have come for help with housing matters, some to see the nurse or dentist.

Others to use the food bank or simply to spend time at Te Hapai, a welcoming and safe place within DCM for people to attend programmes, play music or just hang out.

McIntyre says giving money and food directly to beggars "is charity at it worst."

"We talk here about the practice of manaakitanga - it is built around the word mana.

Mana is about respectfulness, a lifting up of one another. Begging and giving to someone begging is not practising manaakitanga. It's a demeaning and disrespectful [act].

McIntyre suggests people should sit and have a chat with someone who is begging, 'say gidday, have a yarn."

But "Don't give anything. Ask if they are going to DCM, Soup Kitchen or somewhere else. That would be the most effective way to stop it."

Source

• Stuff
• Image: The Spinoff

The charity has been struggling since May and Auckland City Missioner Chris Farrelly said they've been at full capacity for weeks and can't see it letting up anytime soon.

"The sharp edge of poverty is felt around winter more than any other time. People are living hand to mouth," Farrelly told the Herald. Continue reading

It operates out of a converted shipping container in Upper Willis St.

More than 100,000 items of food are redistributed in the shipping container annually.

The Free Store serves people from all walks of life including the homeless, unemployed, students, refugee and immigrant families, the elderly and the sick.

It also makes sure there is no burden of effort for any of their suppliers.

Volunteers arrive at the cafes at a prearranged time and simply take the food away.

Every day they collect food on foot with the use of shopping trolleys. But shopping trolleys are designed for the smooth floors of supermarkets.

The Social Services and Community Development Board, is an Anglican funding board set up by the Wellington Anglican diocese some years ago,

The Board provided some money for the The Free Store to work with a local industrial design company to create a purpose-built trolley.

The trolleys were retrofitted with hefty waterproof canvas wraps, inflatable tyres for noise reduction and easier pushing, adjustable shelving for the interior and ash wood handles for a touch of class.

Source

• movementonline.org.nz
• thefreestore.org.nz
• theregister.co.nz
• Image: movementonline.org.nz

Countdown is setting aside $100,000 of its profits to create a contestable fund that will be available to food rescue operations.

Currently the supermarket chain donates food that is still fit for consumption to charities through the Countdown Food Rescue programme. Read more

Farrelly began as CEO of the Auckland City Mission on 1 June.

"It's no one organisation, no one political party, no one government, no matter what can do this, it's a whole community"

"We work all the time, day in, day out with some of the city's most poorest [sic], we feed and we house, we know the situation. We have our finger on the pulse."

Auckland City Mission has followed 100 families closely to work out what's happening and research shows that there are many causes, and many solutions.

The cost of housing, mental health, debt, drug and alcohol issues, violence and lack of education contribute to the poor living conditions of Auckland's most vulnerable, Farrelly says.

"We need to be part of something that would change that. Over the years we haven't collaborated well. Sometimes we are part of the problem when we don't collaborate to change."

64-year-old Farrelly has most recently been chief executive of Manaia Health Public Health Organisation in Northland.

He spent 10 years working in the slums in Asia. "All my life I've been working with poor people," he says.

"This has been my life, it's where my heart lies. "So it was a call to my heart, some expertise and some experience."

"I've seen a lot of suffering. The results of poverty, of pain, or brokenness. But what stands out for me is in the midst of all this I've seen incredible goodness and human strength."

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• Image: nzdoctor.co.nz

Benefit numbers have dropped by 6.9 per cent in Canterbury and by 6.2 per cent in Auckland in the year to March, well ahead of a national decline of 3.7 per cent.

The only other region that bettered the national average was the Bay of Plenty, with a 4 per cent drop. Continue reading

Begging could be banned throughout Auckland under a bylaw being drafted by the council.

Wellington has addressed the question of public begging by setting up an Alternative Giving Fund asking people to donate their spare change to it rather than give it to beggars on the street.

An initial draft of the Auckland bylaw banned asking for money, food, other items or soliciting donations "in a manner that may intimidate or cause a nuisance to any person".

But after public feedback, commissioners appointed by the Auckland Council and Auckland Transport have recommended all begging be banned.

In Wellington charity boxes are expected to go up late this year to give people an immediate alternative instead of giving money directly to beggars.

All donations will go to six organisations that support the city's vulnerable residents.

Source

• New Zealand Herald
• Stuff.co.nz
• NewsTalkZB
• Image: 3News

Some of the advisory group's interim recommendations were quite specific - on things like benefit payments and affordable housing - while others were more general, aimed at improving the wider environment so child poverty becomes less likely.

For example: ensuring there are enough quality early childhood education services available to allow parents to find and keep work, and ensuring workplaces are child-friendly so parents can combine parenting with the income paid work provides. Read more

Sources

• Phil O'Reilly in The New Zealand Herald
• Image: Habitat for Humanity

Phil O'Reilly is chief executive of BusinessNZ and a member of the Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty.

Research suggests that poverty is the single greatest threat to child wellbeing. Its negative effects endure and escalate across the entire lifespan.

It is concerning, therefore, that according to the recent report by the Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty, approximately 270,000 New Zealand children grow up in poverty. Maori and Pasifika children are considerably over-represented. Even more striking are findings from New Zealand longitudinal research over a seven-year period, presented by researchers Kristie Carter and Fiona Gunasekara. The annual proportion of children living in low-income households was about 27 per cent , and 7.5 per cent of the youngest children were in poverty at all points of the study. The youngest age group (0-4 years) experienced the least movement out of these circumstances. Read more

Sources

• Karen Salmon in The Dominion Post
• Image: TV3 News

Karen Salmon is an associate professor at Victoria University's school of psychology.

Saturday's DomPost Your Weekend section ran an article "$2.25 Buys a big Lesson" where Ruth Nichol recalls her family being part of last year's "Live Below the Line" challenge. When she shopped for the minuscule amounts she could afford she was humbled to see other shoppers doing the same. But they weren't economising for just a few days. They shopped like this all the time. She was struck by how privileged her life is.

Many years ago with a couple of other Sisters I ran a Mission in the west of New South Wales with the local Aboriginal people. We ran a medical clinic, pre-school and junior school on a pittance and aimed to live as closely as possible to the people around us.

But I learnt that despite all our intentions we could never truly live their lives. We had the education and the networks, which enabled us to escape. We never faced the despair and sense of helplessness that seemingly never-ending poverty can bring.

Probably the big thing "Live Below the Line" achieves is that it raises the awareness of the general population of how others are struggling to survive.

And these are not only the 1.4 billion people in developing countries but also thousands of low-income New Zealanders.

Perhaps with celebrities raising the consciousness of many of us it may prevent the snide remarks of some prominent businessmen when the organisation "The Living Wage" was launched last week. Perhaps some celebrities may even lend their fame to help New Zealanders who are finding it so difficult to raise their families despite their hard work. Perhaps they may join "The Living Wage."

Source

• Sr. Catherine Hannan

"Basically we sell the products online, people go on and buy the products, and at the end of the month all of the products that have been purchased [on the online food bank] are given to the city mission itself," Fundy co-founder Tanerau Tuuta says.

The past two months have seen goods donated to the Auckland and the Wellington city missions. This month the products bought will be given to the Christchurch City Mission.

Tuuta set the website up with a friend about a year ago to assist charities with raising funds online.

Source

• New Zealand Herald
• Image: Kaibosh

For many parents and caregivers around the country, keeping their children adequately warm, fed and healthy is a daily struggle. You don't have to be a beneficiary to know that times are really testing; we are in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. I cannot comprehend what the Great Depression was like, but I will admit that my spouse and I find it quite difficult to cover all the bills and we will always think twice about visiting the doctor, simply because we too are feeling the financial crunch. There is no doubt that people around the country are working harder for longer and making tough choices. Some of you might remember Finance Minister Bill English's closing statement as he delivered the 2012 budget "New Zealanders have shown great resilience through challenging times, budget 2012 supports their aspirations for a brighter future." I certainly do not see much hope in that budget; in fact many of us, particularly families, are in despair.

So, where does that leave our most vulnerable? My heart breaks at the thought that so many children go without a meal most days or that their parents cannot afford the winter uniform because it costs a considerable amount. What makes me really angry is that we all know this; there have been countless reports and documentaries emphasising this issue. I personally am tired of governments talking about what they are going to do to tackle this issue. The reality is that an increasing number of children are going hungry, living in cold housing and suffering from preventable diseases. Unfortunately, a significant number of these children will grow up into dysfunctional adults, unless we do something about it. This is a serious issue, an ethical and moral issue that needs a government and you and I to be urgently proactive about change. It's time to turn the tables. Our children need us to do the little things that bring hope and a momentum for change.

We are, after all, raising the next generation of New Zealanders.

• Jennifer Angela Marie Navarro Martinez, is a New Zealand born Philipino who was raised in central Auckland in a typical working class family of the late 80's and early 90's. For the last 8 years she has worked in youth development for The Logos Project. She lives with her partner Ben, and 3-year-old daughter Micah Marcella, and family member Samantha.

Invercargill Salvation Army Captain Russell Garbett said the national Red Shield Appeal was launched yesterday and it was hoped people would donate to the cause to help meet the needs for struggling community members.

Continue Reading

Is it the ultimate result of colonisation unresolved, that one family, of European origin, is able to determine the economic future of a workforce that is more than 60 per cent Maori and which, for centuries, derived its living from that same sea and land from which the Talley family now make its wealth?

These are tough questions that we will need to answer if we are not to let more than 1300 workers and 5000 children go to the wall as their employer Affco, owned by Talley's Group, seeks changes to a collective agreement.

In the meatworks, a large part of a worker's daily pay depends on their team meeting daily tally kill rates, which, in turn, is reliant on the number of people in their team.

Affco wants to have the ultimate ability to determine and change either of these elements - the tally kill number and the team numbers - giving it the ability to reduce workers' earnings by shifting the goalposts.

It won't agree to an additional mechanism that protects minimum tally earnings. It has locked most of its unionised workforce out for more than 50 days straight to try to secure this change in the agreement.

Talking to one of these workers at the weekend during a protest in Whanganui, I learned how he had worked for Affco for 30 years, next to his buddy who had been there for 40.

They have shared all life's ups and downs and believe they may never work together again if the company has its way. They see the union as the only thing that keeps their working life decent and ensures their kids can also work in decent conditions.

Many of these families have exhausted all financial means. They have cashed in their KiwiSavers, frozen their mortgages and got credit card holidays. All these arrangements are coming to an end and they are starting to lose their cars, worry about their houses and realise their retirement will be a poor one. Continue reading

Sources

• Helen Kelly in The Dominion Post
• Image: Stuff

New Zealand families are under growing financial stress as stagnating wages and salaries prove inadequate to cover spiralling costs - and even top-tier earners are feeling the squeeze.

According to Statistics New Zealand's Household Income Survey, 29,200 more families now rate themselves as having incomes too low to meet their daily needs than in the same survey four months before John Key's first term.

In June 2007, the number of households rating themselves income-poor was 254,100. That number has now risen to 283,300.

While some of that is due to natural growth in household numbers, there is also a clear erosion in the belief by many households across the spectrum that their incomes are adequate.

In 2007, the proportion rating their incomes as "not enough" was 16.23%. It's now 17.57%.

Continue reading Rob Stock's article "New Zealand families feel the income squeeze".

• New Zealand families feel the income squeeze
• Image: Habitat for Humanity