Foodbank Demand and Supplementary Assistance Programmes: A Research and Policy Case Study

Ross Mackay

Foodbanks emerged as a distinct feature of the welfare landscape in New Zealand during the 1980s, and then underwent a period of accelerated growth in the early 1990s. Accompanying the growth was an escalation in calls for Government to take action to meet the needs of foodbank users.

In response, a short-term investigation was carried out in October 1994 on the usage of foodbanks, which led to a number of changes in supplementary assistance programmes in December 1994. A subsequent assessment was made of how these changes affected demand for foodbank assistance.

This paper gives an account of the initial research, the changes to supplementary assistance programmes and the assessment of the impact of these changes. The main change involved the relaxation in criteria for supplementary assistance, amounting to a substantial increase in expenditure on Special Needs Grants. The assessment of the impact of this showed a reduced volume of demand for food parcels, although the size of the reduction was relatively small, and in some places demand increased.

The main conclusion drawn is that turning off the demand for foodbank provision will be much harder to achieve than it was initially to turn the demand on.