The plea came this week from the centre’s manager Naomi Rees as she unveiled their present stock – a cupboard of food that would be distributed in a single day to families.

“It is like a food-go-round here – people bring stocks in and we send them straight out again,” Ms Rees said.

“We have spent a lot of our own funds buying emergency stocks of food for desperate people.

“This crisis is acute and I expect that we will be short of food for the next six weeks.

“We had three freezers and two fridges full of food, here at Rutherford and at our centre in Woodberry and everything has gone.

“It is a trying time, so we are asking people to bring in any food they have that might help others: if you have a lemon tree and can bring us some lemons to distribute, please do so – we would be so happy to see you.”

Ms Rees said she believed more people were facing hardship in the Maitland area than was seen during the 2007 floods.

“We are also find that people seem to be more isolated now than they were then,” she said.

“Now we are seeing some families with no food and no way of feeding their children who are relying on their neighbours to get them through.

“In this time of hardship, that could be considered a positive thing, because it has brought a lot of people together.

“We are also finding a lot of lonely people who are isolated and without power for television or radios and who can’t get out of their homes because of the flood waters.

Maitland Neighbourhood Centre can be contacted on 4932 0950.