Over the past two years, Annice Wallington has embraced new strategies in order to feed her family, accruing them as small tactics to solve what has become a weekly puzzle.
The 41-year-old from Cranebrook, a suburban cove 5 kilometres north of Penrith, visits two supermarkets, calculating how to stretch her $300 budget. Shopping at one means not enough food.
"It takes me a long time to do my grocery shopping each week because there's a lot of thought that has to go into it," she said.
She's learnt frozen vegetables are more affordable than fresh. That meat is on sale in-store but never online. That, if she eats breakfast late, she can live off two meals, meaning more food for her two children.
This type of manoeuvring is reactive to rising cost of living, covering everything from housing to groceries and fuel.
The pressure has been felt nationally, with food charity Foodbank suggesting over a third of Australians struggled to afford food in 2023.The same report found NSW is the equal-lowest food secure state.
In recent years, research has also suggested parts of NSW could be"food deserts", a broad concept meaning healthy food in a neighbourhood is limited or more than 1.6km away.
In response, some have adapted their lifestyles, some have skipped meals. Occasionally, Ms Wallington's two meals are pasta and cheese because "we just don't have enough food to stretch".
Her husband began a second job six months ago, now working 14 hours a day, six, sometimes seven, days a week.
"The cost of living is just impossible. It's just 100 per cent impossible," she said.
While food prices are rising nationally, the impact isn't universally-shared, with some pockets of Australia already facing barriers to food access, ranging from distance to the nearest supermarket, supply of fresh foodand cost.
In Greater Western Sydney, this access, known as food security, is considered lower compared to Sydney's east— something long associated with the region'shigher rates of diabetes and obesity.
Decreasing food security raises concerns for long-term health repercussions.
Ms Wallington said while she was living week-to-week, others around her have it worse.
Another issue she also has is that she is diabetic.
"My blood sugar numbers are not where they should be. And part of that is the diet."
Food insecurity in Greater Western Sydney
Nicky Morrison is director of Western Sydney University's Urban Transformations Research Centre.
In 2022, she co-authored a study exploring if parts of Penrith could be considered food deserts.
"Penrith is quite representative, generally, of some of the Western Sydney suburbs. We've got low-density, suburban sprawl," she said.
This project was the latest to explore food insecurity in Greater Western Sydney.
Professor Morrison's study reported some Penrith suburbs had 17 unhealthy options – typically things like convenience stores and fast food chains – to every healthy option, such as a supermarket.
Food insecurity like this can occur when urban sprawl outpaces infrastructure, or supermarket chains or grocery outlets avoidlow-density areas.
"It means you get pockets of suburbs where you just can't access fresh, healthy food."
That reduced access can have health impacts.
"If you haven't got access to affordable, nutritious food, you're going to have negative health outcomes."
Parts of Greater Western Sydney have had higher rates of early death from cardiovascular disease and diabetes compared to the state average.
Genetics can be one factor, but these conditions have also been associated with food insecurity.
Food support demand 'at least quadrupled, if not tenfold'
The ABC spoke with a number of residents across the Blacktown and Penrith local government areas.
Many said rising food prices were creating pressures.
Many also disagreed groceries were limited, including Ms Wallington.
Figures from RMIT suggests that the proportion of homes in Penrith and Blacktown LGAs with supermarkets in a 1km radius and healthy food options was lower than in Sydney's east.
Ms Wallington said her nearest grocery store was about 2km away — a distance not far to drive but one that if you walked, "you couldn't get groceries back again".
But nearby may not mean accessible. John*, a 38-year-old based in the Blacktown LGA, lives near two supermarkets but the closest he can afford is a 20-minute drive.
Like Ms Wallington, he's adapted, eating one meal a day — significant considering he's also diabetic — to relying on neighbourhood and charity support.
"Sometimes, I might need other medications. I'll go without [food] because I don't have enough [money]."
"We're up to 350, 400 [people] per night now," said Sue Beamer, a volunteer for Mama Lana, a food support charity that covers Western Sydney from Penrith to Blacktown and Windsor, for the past decade.
"I would say it would have at least quadrupled, if not tenfold — the number of requests that we would get," said Joy Impiombato, manager of Nepean Community & Neighbourhood Services, on food support demand in the past year.
"[Food support] is not what we are funded to do."
This demand is the most Ms Impiombato has seen in 20 years since managing the grassroots community service organisation. It now includes working families — something new to this year — and over 200 school children a week.
But the demand makes sense, she said, given the current cost-of-living and how it interacts with existing issues, including the cost and time required to travel across Greater Western Sydney, and what groceries are nearby.
She said, for example, there's little-to-no affordable produce stores in Penrith.
"The only place people can go to get their fruit and veg is the big shopping centres or all the supermarkets. And sometimes that's low quality. Often it's very prohibitively expensive."
Exacerbating existing issues
The repercussions of increasing food insecurity could a worsening of Greater Western Sydney's already-existing health issues.
Rajini Jayaballa, a staff specialist endocrinologist with Western Sydney Diabetes, said rising food prices don't necessarily lead to higher rates of diabetes.
"But, of course, if we are becoming more and more overweight, that [will lead] to increasing rates of diabetes."
Zhaoli Dai-Keller, a nutritional epidemiologist with UNSW's School of Population Health, agreed that's one risk, but added food insecurity had a broad number of impacts, like mental wellbeing and accessing essentials.
"When the budget's low, that also impacts healthcare affordability."
Dr Dai-Keller said it was valid to have long-term concerns.
"For some of the folks that really need help, I don't know [if] the food bank is enough.
"Especially for Western Sydney, that area — [and] more regional or remote areas — where people don't have the support and don't have the budget … the impact is huge."
* Name changed to protect identity for privacy
