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Sir :

On page A3 of today's Herald, your reporter Simon Collins asserts that "Demand for food parcels is finally dropping slightly .... the declines follow a decade of increasing demand ...".

The comment is accompanied by a table of Auckland City Mission's food parcel statistics from 1996 to 2006. The table clearly demonstrates that last year's decrease is merely the smallest of three decreases recorded over the interval covered by the table, and by far the least significant in proportional terms. Indeed, with one exception ( 2000-1 ), it is the smallest numerical annual change in the table.

( The decreases are 633 in 1999-2000, 372 in 2002-3, and 218 in 2005-6; as percentages of the demand in the earlier year, they are respectively 18%, 11%, and 4%. Overall, the annual changes vary from 138 to 1701, or 4% to 50%. )

The obvious interpretation of the numbers is that the numbers show an underlying steady increase with fluctuations as one would expect in any such figures. Far from rejoicing at a negligible change, we might ask why the number of food parcels needed in our vibrant new city is three times as great as it was ten years ago. Never mind - I'm sure planting some trees in Queen Street will sort it out.

Alan Creak.

Alan Creak,
2008 March.