One in three Australian households, or 3.5 million households, experienced food insecurity in the past 12 months, according to the ‘Foodbank Hunger Report 2025’.

Foodbank Australia says the report paints a stark picture of widening food insecurity across the nation, debunking the myth that hunger only affects the unemployed or homeless.

“While we dismiss hunger as something that only impacts the most vulnerable in our community,” says Foodbank Australia CEO Kylea Tink, “this year’s ‘Foodbank Hunger Report’ shows households of all stripes, from those that are employed, are renting or have mortgages to those, raising children, or living with disability, neighbours, friends and family we all know, are reporting food insecurity as a fact of life for them.

“This isn’t a fringe issue. Appallingly, hunger is mainstream in Australia right now. Our federal government must act.”

The new report reveals that cost-of-living pressures remain the number one concern for 91% of surveyed food-insecure households, followed by housing and the broader economy.

Other findings include:

• One in two (48%) of all surveyed renting households have experienced food insecurity in the past year.
• Seven in ten (67%) of surveyed households that include someone with a disability or health issue have experienced food insecurity in the past 12 months, with three quarters of them in the severe category.
• Nearly seven in 10 (68%) surveyed single-parent households are now food insecure.
• One in five surveyed households earning $91,000 or more experienced food insecurity in the past 12 months.

“Food insecurity doesn’t discriminate,” says Ms Tink. “Australians are doing everything right: working, budgeting, seeking help – yet still going hungry. This is a failure of policy, not people. We need coordinated, national action now.”

An urgent call

Foodbank Australia is urgently calling on the federal government to:

Adopt the National Food Donation Tax Incentive, a smart and proven way to make it cost effective and easier for farmers, growers and manufacturers to donate edible, surplus produce to food relief organisations instead of sending it to landfill. A simple, fix that would see good food end up in bellies, not bins.”

An immediate cash injection of $5 million in MYEFO to assist with natural disaster preparedness including:

• Sourcing key staples needed by both first responders and communities affected by natural disasters as quickly as possible. This includes bottled water, long life products, cleaning and household products.
• Building on the Darwin pre-deployment warehouse/distribution model and locking in more locations in areas renown for natural disasters, such as Far North Queensland and northern Western Australia, to ensure urgent food relief can be accessed when arterial roadways and train lines are cut off.
• Locking in transportation for far and wide distribution.

Foodbank Australia is also urging the government to not only recognise food relief as a critical, ongoing pillar of disaster preparedness but to ensure the funds are supplied to ensure talk turns into action.

“When disaster strikes, Foodbank provides emergency supplies, food, water and cleaning products to impacted communities and first responders,” says Ms Tink.  

“But the need doesn’t end when the flames or floods subside. Economic hardship lingers long after the clean-up, and Foodbank continues working with communities to help people get back on their feet. We need urgent funding to support these communities in the years it takes to rebuild.”