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 released today.
The Foodbank Hunger Report 2025 reveals that cost-of-living pressures remain the number one concern for 91 per cent of food-insecure households, followed by housing and the broader economy.
“While we dismiss hunger as something that only impacts the most vulnerable in our community, 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,” said Foodbank Australia CEO, Kylea Tink.
“This is not a fringe issue. Appallingly, hunger is mainstream in Australia right now. Our federal government must act,”
Among the report’s key findings:
- One in two (48 per cent) renting households have experienced food insecurity in the past year.
- Seven in ten (67 per cent) 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 ten (68 per cent) single-parent households are now food insecure.
- One in five households earning $91,000 or more experienced food insecurity in the past 12 months.
“Food insecurity doesn’t discriminate,” she said. “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.”
Foodbank Australia is calling on the federal government to adopt the National Food Donation Tax Incentive – a practical and proven way to make it more cost-effective for farmers, growers and manufacturers to donate edible surplus produce to food relief organisations instead of sending it to landfill. This would help ensure good food ends up in bellies, not bins.
The organisation is also calling on the government to provide 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 affected communities, such as bottled water, long-life foods, and cleaning and household products.
- Expanding on the Darwin pre-deployment warehouse and distribution model by establishing more locations in areas prone to natural disasters such as Far North Queensland and northern Western Australia, ensuring urgent food relief can be accessed when roads and rail lines are cut off.
- Securing transport for wider distribution.
“Food insecurity can be eradicated, but the federal government must step up, lead and take smart action to ensure Australians are not going hungry,” said Tink.
With the recently released National Climate Risk Assessment warning of escalating impacts from severe weather events, Foodbank Australia is also urging the government to recognise food relief as a core element of disaster preparedness and to provide the necessary funding to turn plans into action.
“When disaster strikes, Foodbank provides emergency supplies, food, water and cleaning products to impacted communities and first responders. 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,” she added.