Holiday helping hand: Liberty Church reports wave of need at Christmas at its foodbank charity store

Liberty Church Senior Pastor James Ardill said their food banks in Tamworth and Barraba are making record turnover.

Where once the stores would make $3000 or 3500 a week, it's now making $4500 or $5000, he said.

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"We have discovered a significant increase in relief," he said.

"We've gone from maybe five a week to maybe 10-15 a week, easily.

"One day a couple of weeks ago we had 10 in one day, just come in."

Liberty Church has run its Robert St discount grocer in West Tamworth - which initially sold food donated to it by Foodbank Australia and OzHarvest - for four years.

The service now also buys food discarded by Coles and Woolworths and sells it at a small profit. It now opens five days a week, employs a full time manager, and boasts dozens of volunteers.

In August, the church set up a new store in Barraba, the first node of a planned network of outreach discount grocery stores.

He said recent weeks have been their biggest ever in the small town.

"We've got about 230 registrations out of a town of 1400," he said.

"The amount of food that we're doing has just increased."

Christmas is an expensive time of year for Tamworth's poorest, and an escalating price of petrol hasn't helped people pay the bills.

Unlike Lifeline and the Salvation Army and other church-run charities, Liberty doesn't sell Christmas presents directly.

But Pastor Ardill said they were still doing their bit to make the holiday season special for people.

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Saving money on the essentials leaves more for a gift for the kids or a nice Christmas day lunch.

"We look for the need, the practical need. Nothing fancy, nothing flashy," he said.

"We're just trying to meet the people's needs there.

"And hopefully we can give them a bit of hope, a bit of Christmas cheer whatever the circumstances are. Just turn around and say 'listen somebody cares for you.'"

COVID-19 drastically increased need in Tamworth, customers at the West Tamworth store grew from 1800 to 3000.

The Salvation Army is just one of many preparing for a big Christmas giveaway.

New Salvos Majors Tony and Yan DeTommaso have implemented a new program to use gift-giving to encourage recipients to do a financial education program.

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