street. It's in every community across Australia."

Foodbank research shows some children are going the whole day without eating. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

Collin Peebles, chief executive of the Geelong Food Relief Centre, said demand had exploded for services over the past three years.

"Only recently we had a seven-year-old girl walk into the Food Bank on a Thursday afternoon, she hadn't eaten anything for five days," he said.

He said mortgage stress and the cost of living were driving families to use foodbanks for the first time.

A mother's struggle to put food on the table

Louise Holland knows first hand what it is like to constantly worry about not having enough food to feed her children.

The former nurse, from Sydenham in Melbourne's north-west, took time out of the workforce tocare for her ill husband five years ago.

Louise Holland and her daughter Victoria, 13, prepare food they have received from Foodbank. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

He died in 2016, leaving her as the sole carer for her four children.

Once the family's savings were gone, it became harder and harder to make ends meet.

"We would eat low-grade mincemeat, sausages … anything that was filling but that was cheap," she said.

"Sometimes the kids would go to school with no lunch. There would always be something on the table at night, but it might not have been as nutritious as it should have been."

Louise found herself in financial trouble after the death of her husband. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

Sometimes things got so bad, Ms Holland and her eldest