Its more than just food

It’s just after 3am and I am wide awake- this is nothing unusual for me, it more of a annoying than anything else that sleep simply doesn't seem to go the entire night. However, I woke up this morning with another layer of frustration that simply seems to grow.

I delivered a small Bags of Love emergency food hamper on my way back to my house last evening, it was well past dinner time; there were the normal hugs and greetings and the offer for a cup of tea which I had to decline because as I said it was well past dinner time and my tummy was starting to complain.

Then came the words that I woke up thinking about “we decided to wait to get something to eat so we could see what you had for us” . What was in the Bags of Love emergency food hamper was for the most part frozen solid except for some fish and hommus and some yoghurt; I have sat at this couple’s dinner table in the past and no doubt I will dine there again in the future so I know the magic that would have been created would have more than filled their empty tummies as well.

I lay in bed trying to get back to sleep just a short time back, reaching the point where frustration overrode the need for sleep.

Last Friday 2 families arrived at the Centre needing help with food- between the 2 families was 8 children ranging in age from 6yrs to 15yrs of age. We dug deep into the freezers and the scant supplies in the pantry cupboards to ensure that the families had food for the weekend and food for the children’s school lunches as well as a few treats.

If the food were to be purchased at the local supermarket it would have been around $600- thankfully the food was all donated to the Centre by OzHarvest.

I am often asked why injured workers even need food hampers and why we at the Centre strive so hard to ensure that we reach as many injured workers and their families as we can. The answer is quite simple, injured workers live on a reduce income to their pre-injury income but they still have 100% of normal living costs. They don’t get any assistance from CentreLink they don’t get a healthcare card, they don’t get a reduction in power or gas or phone or water or council rates or school fees. The only thing that is “flexible” is the family food budget. At first the family food shop is as close to normal as is possible, but it doesn’t take long before things are cut out of the family diet, quality meat is replaced by cheaper cuts and then reduced again to discounted cuts and then reduced again by subsidising meat with home brand tin fish. And so it goes for fruit and vegetables as well; crisp apples are replaced with the apples on the discount racks.

I am never going to forget the look on one little child’s face when I handed him a fresh apple, so fresh the apple smell filled the room, he looked at me then he looked at his Mummy and then he looked back to me again and he asked “can I eat this?” I knew what he was asking, he was asking permission to eat the apple straight away instead of having to wait until he got home and have his Mummy cut the apple in half to share with his sister.I told him not only could he eat the apple straight away but he didn’t have to share it with anyone as there was a full bag of apples for him and his sister to eat.His Mummy on the other hand had tears as she said “he has never had a fresh apple in his life, this is the first time he has ever felt what an apple should feel like.”

Its only food, at least on the surface that is all it is.But it is much much more than food- it is hope it is dignity it is respect it is understanding where the injured worker family is and meeting them there, it is as the motto for the Bags of Love emergency food hamper project says- "Its a hand up-not a hand out."

Even this though wasn’t enough to logically explain the feeling of frustration away. So I got up made myself some tea and toast to think about why this night I am feeling most frustration than normal.

Then I remembered 3 articles I read yesterday each of them about food and the impact the lack of food has on children and families.Admittedly the first 2 news articles are from America and England  and don’t mention the impact of a workplace injury; but they do talk about the impact on the children of not having enough to eat.

The third article I will not put a link to- but in all likelihood this would be the article that has added fuel to the fires of frustration.The article spoke of the good work a local law firm is doing in assisting to raise funds for a not-for-profit food project. It is a much needed food project here in Adelaide for a very specific group of people who find themselves in a very difficult situation.This very same law firm refers their injured worker clients to the Centre for Bags of Love emergency food hampers.There is oft vague promises of corporate sponsorship, and there is oft promises to pay “something” towards the Centre’s costs. But nothing ever comes other than requests for help to put quality food into the hands of the injured workers the law firm represents. Now to be fair, a large number of law firms in Adelaide refer their injured worker clients to the Centre for the help that is provided there and to date none of them have done anything to help.The only law firm that has arranged assistance is a law firm that for the most part represents the workers compensation industry and has never asked the Centre to assist any of their clients.

Is this just sour grapes; I don’t know.

I know the 2 news articles speak of issues at the lowest possible end of humanity and that the same issues are found here in Australia- we just don’t know what the issues really are for the families within the workers compensation system because simply doesn’t recognise workers compensation as a social issue.

What I do know is that in the morning when the children of injured workers get up for school far too many of them will not have enough to eat for breakfast and many more of them will not have anything to pack for their school lunches and they will return home to a meal that will not give them the energy they need to study.

Children are the real victims of a workplace injury, they have no voice, they have no way of getting help, the suffer in silence.

Yours in service (and frustration)

Rosemary