Emergency food supplies guaranteed to keep coming to Geelong

Crucial supplies from around Geelong and Melbourne to local food banks will continue, thanks to an emergency grant for a new food delivery van organised by the Geelong Community Foundation.

Marcus Godinho the CEO of FareShare said “Without this support, we’d struggle to collect the abundance of meat, vegetables and donations of other ingredients from businesses in Geelong and deliver our cooked meals to local charities.”

“At a time when more and more people are doing it tough, we want to not only fill bellies, but help improve the diet and well-being of people affected by the pandemic.”

“This urgent grant from the Foundation has meant we can keep delivering for Geelong”

Gail Rodgers, the Geelong Community Foundation’s CEO said today “We responded to this urgent need, and with the Dawn Wade Foundation and an anonymous donor, made a grant of $64,000 to pay for this van.”

“We needed a quick fix, especially in the crisis we are dealing with today in Geelong. This year FareShare delivered over 17,500 ready-to-eat meals and over 6,500kg of savoury pastries to Geelong. They also delivered an additional 35 tonnes of fresh fruit and vegetables to the Geelong Food Relief Centre, The Outpost and Salvation Army, Corio.”

FareShare in Melbourne rescues surplus quality food that would otherwise be wasted, and cooks more than one million meals a year in Australia’s largest charity kitchen.

Gail Rodgers added “Our grant-making focus has shifted to emergency mode, to ensure funding is directed to areas most impacted by COVID19, including food security, mental health and isolation.”

The Geelong Community Foundation has a corpus of over $25 million. Income derived from this has funded over $8.7 million in community grants since 2001.

To support either organisation, go to Geelong Community Foundation and Fareshare