Mobile pantry offers helping hand to struggling new Australians

Australians spend as much as $314 a week on food and drink, but a church-based program is helping to dramatically cut this cost for those in need.

A mobile community pantry that operates out of a van is giving immigrants a helping hand when it comes to big grocery bills.

A community-based collaboration is helping disadvantaged groups, including some migrants, put food on the table on a tight budget.

The mobile community pantry, run by Anglicare, allows people on immigration, healthcare and pension cards to take a $60 bag of groceries home for just $10, with a maximum of two bags per person.

So far, the pantry is visiting seven areas in Sydney where a need for the service has been identified.

Margaret Powell guides Khin Khet through some groceries at the back of the van, which stores all the food.

This will help ease the squeeze of grocery bills for those who need assistance, when most Australian families can spend up to $314 a week on food and drink, according to the Australian Securities Investment Commission in 2012.

It’s a financial lifeline for people such as Khin Khet, a stay at home mum raising three children with her husband and still trying to find her feet in Australia after arriving from Burma seven years ago. 

"If I buy from a shop, I need to pay around $50 or $60, so how much can I save?" she said. 

"If I buy two bags here, I can save $100 a fortnight. I don't know about other people but that's big money for me."

People are allowed to take home a limit of two bags each. Source: SBS

Mrs Khet said she used the savings to invest in her children's education.

Iraqi Marwa Alkinani said for her family it was a "big game changer" in many ways.

"The struggle is a lot, seriously ... especially [with] kids - they grow and want more things and it's really hard not to give it to them," she said. 

Both women were in Lakemba in Sydney's south-west on Tuesday where the mobile pantry visits once a fortnight.

Certain foods such as spices are included for those coming to visit the pantry in Lakemba. Source: SBS

Cross-cultural worker Margaret Powell, based at Lakemba's St Andrews Anglican Church, said a mobile pantry had never been done before. 

Reverend Powell said in a vibrant multicultural community such as Lakemba, the pantry catered for its demographics by offering halal foods, spices and other products that were staples in the culture of the local people, as well as being a hub for people to create new bonds.

"There's a lot of people from south Asia - Bangladesh particularly but also Pakistan and India - and people from the Arabic-speaking countries," she said.

Those coming to use the mobile pantry van in Lakemba are mainly from South Asian and Arabic speaking countries. Source: SBS

"It's not about putting barriers up, it's about providing this for people who really need it."

The ongoing mobile pantry has stock to help 60 families on one given day and would have the potential to provide as many as 7440 grocery bags, or more than 140 years of groceries to one family, by the end of this financial year.