OzHarvest Canberra said it's "stretched" as the cost of living crisis has increased demand for its services.
Australia's leading food rescue organisation, OzHarvest, saves food from landfill by delivering it to charities that help feed people in need.
OzHarvest Canberra city manager Belinda Barnier said a majority of the charities they support had experienced a 30 per cent increase in people who had never before sought food from a charity.
She said the increase in the cost of living, particularly the cost of heating during winter, is causing more people to seek the services OzHarvest provides.
"There are very few of us that could say that heating costs aren't stretching our budgets," Ms Barnier said.
"So, what do you do? Do you freeze, or do you eat?"
OzHarvest has already collected 428,000 kilograms of food from donors for distribution this year, which is a significant increase from 296,000 kilograms collected this time 12 months ago.
OzHarvest Canberra said it does not have the resources to support the growing demand for its food collection services.
"I know we could easily do another 100,000 kilos, but we don't have that capacity," Ms Barnier said.
"OzHarvest today does not have a hot tap or a kitchen.
"And we're quite dislocated from the city itself."
OzHarvest's location behind Canberra airport has proven challenging with only two trucks.
"If you're delivering to Dunlop, or you're delivering to Lanyon, the back of the airport is not as practical as it could be," Ms Barnier said.
She said because of this, OzHarvest cannot use its volunteers to their fullest extent, despite having a keen workforce willing to help and cook every day.
"It's not about what OzHarvest wants. It's what our community needs," Ms Barnier said.
Ms Barnier said OzHarvest needed more funding and assistance in order to support more Canberrans facing food insecurity.
But the organisation is grateful that it has received nearly $250,000 from the ACT government to deliver a program focused on nutrition and cooking, dubbed NEST.
The program is a series of six-week workshops focusing on teaching low-cost food shopping, budgeting and healthy recipes for Canberrans experiencing food insecurity.
OzHarvest national NEST program manager Elisha West said with the rising cost of living they are seeing more middle-income earners needing the skills to stretch their budgets.
"What we found is people weren't sure how to utilise a tin of chickpeas or an eggplant," Ms West said.
"So, NEST was formed for that reason to be able to provide people with the skills to create nutritious meals on a budget.
"We cook together, and then there's a sharing of the meal at the end."
