More South Australians families have turned to food support services in the past three months than ever before as cost-of-living pressures continue to make a dent in household budgets, services say.
According to support organisations, the sharp increase in people from regional areas seeking assistance has come after months of record-high petrol prices and increasing grocery bills.
Foodbank South Australia and Central Australia chief executive Greg Pattison said some of the group's regional hubs had experienced record-breaking days.
"Our Whyalla food hub and our pop-up market that we've had down in Port Lincoln are all having record days within the last two to three months," Mr Pattison said.
"Nowadays, a lot of the people that are actually coming in have jobs, 30 per cent have actually got mortgages."
Mr Pattison said a perfect storm of factors had made it hard for people to eat healthily and get enough food to feed their children.
According to the latest Foodbank Hunger Report, 52 per cent of all Australian households with children under 18 experienced some form of food insecurity in the past 12 months.
"About 40 per cent of these have never needed any help or never sort food assistance in the past," Mr Pattison said.
"Many of them don't see themselves as being part of the welfare system, many of them have got jobs, they're not victims of domestic violence."
Demand will only increase
Centacare Catholic Country South Australia chief executive Jen Cleary said the amount of people seeking financial support had doubled this year.
"We have no doubt that the demand for emergency support will increase," Ms Cleary said.
"For the first time, we're seeing people struggling who are on a middle wage income."
Ms Cleary said an increase in rent and mortgages made the most vulnerable people in society more at risk.
She said demand for relationship counselling and mental health support was expected to increase due to the rising cost of living.
"When families are struggling financially, it can become tense in the household," Ms Cleary said.
"We're seeing people making the choice between paying rent or putting food on the table which is not acceptable."
Mr Pattison has called on the state government for more funding to meet the increase in demand for Foodbank's services.
"We get really limited support from the state government, compared to other states and we're now at the point of talking to the government and saying 'look, we really need some more substantial level of support."
Human Services Minister Nat Cook said the state government had provided extra funding for Foodbank.
"We have responded to Foodbank in particular in recent months to give them an additional $50,000 in a bit of a cost-of-living supplement for them … on top of the $231,000 that we've got budgeted for the next year."
The minister said the financial pressures families were facing came after a difficult three- to four-year period.
"I think this is continuing on from what we saw during COVID where there were those same pressures," Ms Cook said.
"This is now turning into an issue over several years that we hope will turn around as we emerge from that COVID situation."
