Thousands of Canberrans have struggled to put food on the table since coronavirus struck, turning to community services to help.
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The Canberra Relief Network, set-up at the outset of the crisis, has distributed 4500 food hampers since April 1, helping more than 2000 Canberrans.
The volunteer-assisted organisation delivers packages of food and other essentials to Canberra's most vulnerable, including anyone impacted by COVID-19.
In announcing a staged community recovery plan on Thursday, Community Services Minister Suzanne Orr said community needs would change in the next few months.
"We'll continue to look at how we provide this service," she said.
"We've put it in place initially for six months and we'll continue to look at whether we need to continue that support.
"Our community will need a range of support and the need for that support will change."
Ms Orr said Canberra's young people, hit hardest by unemployment, elderly people with health concerns and those who had lost work would need significant help moving forward.
"These are all groups we've identified as part of our recovery that we want to support and we will be looking to have a conversation with the community to better understand what is quite unprecedented impacts to our community," she said.
The recovery plan includes a campaign to get to know your neighbours, activity packs to keep Canberrans busy in lieu of large public gatherings and a new government website for non-health related coronavirus information.
"Over the next six months we'll be looking at how we can help Canberrans become connected, support people as we move through isolation, particularly people who feel more susceptible to COVID-19," she said.
"We'll then be looking after that initial six-months period at what we do [for] the longer term strategy."
The second phase of the plan also includes programs such as Floriade Reimagined to revive art and culture and returning the community sector to in-person services.
Not-for-profit organisations and charities in Canberra have seen the need for their services increase.
Anglicare communications manager Amy Lanham said the charity was concerned by a spike in demand.
"With the lifting of the Covid-19 restrictions more people have been able to visit Anglicare's emergency relief hubs in Canberra and across the region.
"A spike in demand for our food services is experienced every year as we move into winter," she said.
"This year we've noticed that families who have never accessed these services before now find themselves in need.
"This is extremely concerning for community organisations such as ours.
"We know that food insecurity usually points to other issues such as housing and job insecurity, health problems and relationship breakdown."
Ms Lanham said that COVID-19 was an additional stress for families some of whom were still reeling from the impact of the bushfires.
"We are particularly worried about what the phasing out of the JobKeeper and JobSeeker payments will mean for those who are most vulnerable," she said.
