THE door is always open at Newcastle's Soul Cafe, but even volunteers are surprised at the sheer number of people who need to walk through it.
As the rising cost of living puts families and those on the fringes under extreme financial pressure, more people are turning to the Soul Hub for help.
In January, the organisation that helps disadvantaged people in the community saw a 52 per cent increase in the number of meals served compared to last year.
Based on those figures, general manager Matt Ortiger expects the total number of meals served in 2023 to double.
"It's hard to point the finger at just one thing, but overall we're seeing more people presenting with more complex needs," he said.
"To us people aren't clients, or numbers, or patients, or drug addicts - they're our guests and our friends.
"So to see the need increasing means people we know and like are hurting, they're experiencing hardship and have burdens on them.
"They might be able to pay the rent but they can't pay for their medicines, life is really difficult for people going through that."
In January the cafe served up 2310 meals compared to 1518 in 2022.
And it's not just meals where volunteers have seen more need, guests are increasingly attending services, coming in to be connected with a social worker or the medical clinic and need more pantry and hygiene products.
Social services across Australia are under increased strain, with UnitingCare Australia calling on the federal government to put wellbeing at the heart of its budget in May.
National director Claerwen Little said the wellbeing of millions of Australians is at stake, and the government can't afford to wait any longer to address the spiralling cost of living.
"One in four Australians report difficulties getting by on their current income as the country faces the largest increase in cost of living since the year 2000," she said.
"Financial stress is higher than ever before and Australians regularly face making a choice between groceries and rent, or heating and medicine.
"Community services are facing an unprecedented challenge with accelerating demand placing mounting pressure on an already stretched workforce."
Mr Ortiger said part of the equation is eliminating large wait-lists for government services, which are also experiencing high demand.
About 70 per cent of the guests who walk through the doors are male, often estranged from their families - the women they help are mostly in a similar situation.
"I guess for us we want to engage with the hurt and vulnerability around us and allow that to move us to compassion," Mr Ortiger said.
"We want to be a compassionate community response to a deep community need.
"Occasionally you get a bit angry or want to get political but our big thing is how we can show compassion to people experiencing big need."
He said a wraparound response to that need is what's most likely to help vulnerable people - most of whom face multiple challenges from addiction to homelessness or lack of employment.
"It's almost never as simple as 'don't take drugs' or 'just get a house', nearly every person has more than one of these issues going on," he said.
"Wraparound services are important and that's what's lacking, we need to work together not just address housing, mental health or addiction in a silo.
"We need to work on all three to see people's lives transformed."
Soul Hub has more than 200 volunteers and numbers have grown by about 60 in the last year.
Volunteers have handed out 6500 hampers in the last year along with 1500 Christmas packages.
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