Devonport based Loaves and Fishes has offered its services since 2018 and is having to meet an unseen before demand.

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A recent University of Tasmania report revealed as many as one-in-five of the 1100 Tasmanians surveyed struggled to know or work out where their next meal would come from.

During the height of pandemic, as charities like Loaves and Fishes grappled with how they could make contact with those in need, one-in-four Tasmanians reported being food insecure.

Loaves and Fishes general manager Aaron Kropf said a number of factors were working against those battling for a meal.

As the federal government's COVID-19 stimuli have been reduced and removed the number of Tasmanians reaching out for help at specialist homelessness services has continued to climb.

According to data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare the amount of specialist homelessness service clients was at the highest point since July 2017.

Since January the number of clients had swollen by over 100.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in Tasmania sits at 5.7 per cent, point-six per cent higher than the national average and second to only South Australia at 5.8 per cent.

Tasmania also had the highest underemployment rate at nine per cent, well above the national average of 7.4 per cent.

The rate of underemployment represents people who are in work but are wanting to work more.

For Loaves and Fishes, and other emergency food relief organisations, the collision course of unemployment, underemployment and homelessness has correlated directly with an increase in people needing food.

Mr Kropf said now, heading into winter, the challenge was becoming even more difficult.

"We need to buy much more food in winter to make the range and volume of ready-to-eat meals and breakfast supplies that more than 220 partners need," he said.

Mr Kropf said a way Loaves and Fishes managed to deliver its service was through taking unwanted or potentially wasted food and handing it out to those in need.

"Loaves and Fishes rescues and repurposes more than one million kilograms of food each year for distribution statewide," he said.

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Traditionally, the winter months are challenging to emergency food relief groups.

Weather conditions including floods and frost had impacted crop production in Tasmania which had filtered down and impacted Loaves and Fishes in the past and threatened to do so once again.

In the pursuit of getting on top of food insecurity in Tasmania, Loaves and Fishes launched a winter relief appeal and set a fundraising target of $90,000.

Mr Kropf said the amount the group had already raised was impressive.

"[We have] so far raised almost $50,000 of the $90,000 goal," he said.

"Money raised from our winter appeal allows us to buy the ingredients we can't get donated: flour, rice, pasta, dairy, meat and spices, and some fruit and vegetables."

Mr Knopf said the way Loaves and Fishes operates allowed them to make two meals for one dollar - meaning the $90,000 dollar target had the potential to lead to 180,000 meals.

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