Regional organisations that distribute food to residents in need are gearing up for a potential "social disaster" after winter, despite reliance on their services dropping since unemployment benefits were boosted.
Albury Wodonga Regional FoodShare has reported a drop in people needing emergency food services since JobSeeker payments were raised to $1,100 a fortnight.
"Suddenly people have gotten sufficient funds just to buy food for themselves," said the facility's general manager, Peter Matthews.
"Some agencies have seen dramatic — up to 50 per cent — reduction in demand.
"It's been fantastic that people are getting sufficient funds to enable them to support themselves."
JobSeeker is due to revert back to $565 at the end of September when JobKeeper payments, worth $1,500 a fortnight, also end.
Hungry times ahead
The organisation fears it could be swamped with demand when the additional COVID-19 unemployment benefits are expected to be cut.
"We're getting very nervous about what could happen in September," Mr Matthews said.
Some agencies are predicting a "social disaster" if JobSeeker and JobKeeper payments are cut back.
"The demand could double, triple," he said.
"Not only are people who are remaining on JobSeeker suddenly going to go back to the situation they were before the amount was doubled, there's a whole many more people in the community who are finding themselves unemployed in a whole range of sectors.
"Suddenly people who were in sectors that were really stable before COVID-19 become unstable."
Mr Matthews said the emergency food relief sector was not wasting time while the demand has eased and is gearing up for a potential surge.
Centres are liaising with food manufacturers and retailers, many who helped out those in need during the summer bushfire crisis.
"So it's a multi-faceted approach to ensuring we have sufficient food and the mechanism to get the food into the communities that need the food," Mr Matthews said.
