HUNGER across the state's Aboriginal lands has prompted an emergency intervention from Red Cross. Regional store operators in the area say reports of people starving in communities forced the organisation to organise pallets of food to be dispatched from Adelaide-based food charity Foodbank. Red Cross South Australia executive director Kerry Symons told The Advertiser yesterday the organisation had established a new community reference group to administer the food aid, which had been sent to Fregon, a community of about 200 people. "Because of the issues of remoteness, the fragility of the infrastructure in the APY lands . . . and all of the social factors it is hard, at times, for people to access food," she said. "What we are doing in Fregon, at the invitation of the community, is to set up a community reference group (so) if somebody is hungry and they need food we may be able to provide some support." Ms Symons said the organisation was not able to provide the welfare service indefinitely and was hoping to develop more permanent solutions to address hunger in the Lands. She said the food aid would be administered for six months from shipping containers provided by the State Government. The Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women's Council, which covers the remote Aboriginal lands of South Australia, said the organisation was providing about 20 emergency food vouchers a week to people in its administered area suffering from hunger. "The emergency food in Fregon is emergency shipping containers of food which came about because they (the Red Cross) observed that people were starving in Fregon," NPY spokeswoman Liza Balmer said. But Ms Balmer said the issue of hunger on the Lands was largely related to problems with income management, rather than food availability. She said a holistic approach to the problem was needed. Regional Stores Council general manager Kirsten Grace, who manages six of the nine major food stores on the Lands, called on the Government to support a voluntary income management scheme to prevent hunger, particularly among children. "People are going without food and it is a big issue," she said. "If you are starving and you have money in your pocket you spend it, and then you have no money. There is no planning or management. "It is a difficult issue because poverty in your own country is not popular. It is not a nice thing to have." Aboriginal Affairs Minister Grace Portolesi said she did not think there was a widespread hunger issue on the Lands, but said the Government was looking at improving food security. "There is an issue around food security on the APY Lands - which is why in December last year I released the Food Security Strategic Plan to address access to and availability of quality, nutritious food for families," she said.
- Political reporter Sarah Martin http://m.news.com.au/SA/pg/0/fi808645.htm
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