Tuesday, 5 November, 2024
Early vote counts show who’s leading election race
Women pilots set to embark on flight challenge
Ten years of Angel Boxes made by Men’s Shed
See Real Estate liftout inside
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A Star News Group Publication
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Superspooky As Halloween fell across the eve of Thursday, the donning of costumes from the spooky to the superhero could be seen throughout suburban streets. Children once again embraced trick or treating, with celebrations kicking off in the mid-afternoon as families wandered the streets with little ones, while older kids branched out in lolly hunting hordes. Crowds also filled the Mooroolbark Miniature Railway for its annual Halloween spectacular, train rides the hottest commodity of the evening for many young chap and lass. To see more, turn to page 14
Kate from Lilydale getting ready to go trick or treating. (Stewart Chambers: 441027)
Food insecurity is rife in our region and hard-pressed volunteers find it...
Hard to stomach By Tanya Steele Food insecurity remains firmly in the spotlight across the Yarra Ranges as demand for food relief continues and the continued strain is impacting how people are feeding their families. Volunteers are seeing food fly out of pantries as soon as it lands in them and have noticed different groups of people accessing services that have never needed them before.
Foodbank Victoria Chief Commercial Officer Katie Fisher said when a person is hungry and their kids are hungry, they want to fill their tummies that day. “Retailers referred to it as a beige spike,” she said. “It’s what they see in terms of spikes in demand when there’s issues like this cost of living,” she said. Ms Fisher said consumers were dropping
costlier fresh food items like protein and dairy off their regular shops in favour of lower-cost items like chips and pizzas. “Cost of living is impacting on the decisions that we’re making around what we’re feeding our families,” said Ms Fisher. This year’s Foodbank Hunger Report for 2024 by Foodbank Victoria confirmed that food insecurity in Australia has reached a critical point. Almost half of low-income households have faced
food insecurity in 2024, the worst the situation has been since the cost-of-living crisis began. Compared to the average population experiencing food insecurity in 2024, those experiencing it for the first time this year were more likely to be young, aged 18-24, fulltime students, people earning higher incomes (over $95,000) and those impacted by natural disasters. Continued page 3
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