There's been a big jump in the number of people seeking emergency help as cost-of-living pressures squeeze harder.
Organisations providing help in the ACT say they are now seeing the kinds of people they hadn't seen before - those in need are increasingly those with jobs.
"People are making the decision: food or medicine," Patrick McGrath, who directs the Vinnies help program in Canberra and Goulburn, said.
Calls to its emergency helpline have risen from 60 to 70 calls a day to 130 to 140. On one recent day, 180 distressed people called.
"Over the last six to eight weeks, we've had a 15 per cent increase," Randolph Albrecht, manager of Canberra City Care, said. That adds up to an extra 200 families seeking cut-price meals and household goods.
He said about one in ten Canberrans were living in poverty as officially defined. "That is about 40,000 people, including 6000 to 7000 children."
"People are coming to get groceries at the moment," Jason Haines who runs St John's Care in Reid said. "In the past, it was people on benefits but now we've got people with car repayments and mortgages.
"The cost of food and the cost of petrol - people are really feeling it."
The charity is putting on a Christmas Day lunch catering for 250 people, though they obviously can't be sure how many will turn up.
At the Salvation Army centre in Braddon, a very diverse range of people were eating roast chicken, potatoes and salad on Friday.
"Everything's gone up," said Brad Hogno, who earns $55,000 a year as a garbage man. "It's taking a bigger slice of the budget, so any help is good."
"The new people coming are individuals or families with lower income jobs. They are facing struggle and pain," Mitchell Stevens, who runs the Salvation Army food bank, said.
His wife and co-organiser Sally Stevens said some people were asking for extra milk in their tea and coffee because they couldn't afford it.
The Salvos centre gets edible unsold food from a range of local and national shops. Nando's in Canberra closed their restaurant to give free meals.
"Nando's are amazing," Sally Stevens said. "They closed their restaurant and invited us to bring people."
Vinnies sends out Christmas hampers which include toys for parents who can't afford presents for their children. "We've pushed the biggest number of hampers we've ever done," Patrick McGrath from Vinnies said. He reckoned they have distributed 1800 hampers.
He said homelessness was a persistent problem, not just in Canberra but also on the South Coast: "Batemans Bay is one of our biggest areas of need."
But the surprise this Christmas is the expanding pattern of people seeking help. "There's a group of people that we might not have helped for four or five years but who are now calling back," he said.
Mr McGrath praised the generosity of Canberrans. Attitudes have been changed by the pandemic. "It's been just extraordinary.
"People are coming out of COVID, and COVID has refocused their attention on what's important. It's phenomenal. It's something we should be proud of as a city.
"People have enormous hearts."
