By Tanya Steele
As Christmas approaches a large food resource hub has been in established in for a 12 month trial in Wantirna offering a boon to local food agencies and communities in need.
The facility will allow better access and distribution for food relief agencies throughout Knox and the Yarra Ranges and will be overseen by Outer East Foodshare.
Outer East Foodshare Secretary Marilyn Lambert said the facility is something the organisation has wanted for some time and the group is rapidly learning ‘on the go’.
“We’re trying to service Yarra Ranges and Knox agencies – we’ve been around for 10 years and we’ve not had a base,” she said.
“We can now store some of the larger volumes and share it out, it has been an absolute godsend for us – it’s terrific.”
The hub officially opened on 3 November and the warehouse was established with assistance from Knox City Council.
Knox Mayor, Cr Jude Dwight said Council had responded to surging community need for food and other emergency relief by providing access to a Council building for the 12-month trial.
“Outer East Foodshare will use the building to store and distribute Foodbank supplies to 35 local services in Knox that support residents in need,” she said.
“This is part of the Council’s work supporting welfare agencies to provide much needed services in our community. As cost of living pressures are acutely felt in our community, Council is working hard to ensure our residents can access good quality, nutritious food.”
Outer East volunteers have been active in the centre and are now able to process larger quantities of food – sometimes up to 300 kg from supermarkets. The larger volumes of food support can then be divided out to agencies or be picked up.
“We’re encouraging agencies to do a combination of either pick up and some we’re delivering to – just because of the logistics of getting it out quickly and getting it out to as many agencies as possible,” Ms Lambert said.
There is an estimated shortage of 167,138 kilograms of food each year needed to support people experiencing food insecurity in Knox alone.
Ms Lambert said the volunteer group have been collecting rescued food, such as surplus products and ‘ugly’ farm produce for the warehouse.
“We’ll have the ability to bring several more tonnes of rescued food and we will help the agencies who give out the food,” she said.
Ms Lambert said that they have had to be flexible and move quickly to distribute the food – the centre has been using “what’s app” mobile phone chat threads to do their best to equally distribute the donations.
“Recently, we got a large donation of spinach and another day we got in about 108, two kilo packets of ham – we needed to get that out as quickly as possible because we might get something different in on another day,” she said.
Casey MP Aaron Violi visited the centre on Friday 15 December and said it was great to visit the new hub for and witness firsthand the work of the dedicated volunteers.
“From their hub in Wantirna, Outer East Food Share supports our community through supplying organisations right across the Yarra Ranges – from ADRA in Warburton, the Mustard Tree in Lilydale, HICCI in Healesville, Discovery Community Care in Mt Evelyn, Foothills Community Care in Upwey, Food is Free Tecoma, Tecoma Uniting Church, Montrose Pantry, Holy Fools, Monbulk Care Network and many others,” he said.
“None of this would be possible without the volunteers at Outer East Food Share or the volunteers inside the many emergency food relief organisations they support.”
The agencies will also save time and petrol money Ms Lambert said it will enable a lot more food to be rescued and avoid it going to landfill, while supporting people who need help.
“A growing number of people in genuine need are saying, ‘By the time I’ve paid for my rent, electricity, fuel for my vehicle and school costs, there’s not a lot left’. And so what gets scrimped is food,” she said.
The initiative is part of the Council’s ongoing work with food relief agencies in the outer eastern suburbs the warehouse will not be open directly to residents seeking support.
“We’re very much learning and we’re hoping we’ll learn on the go and gear up for next year,” Ms Lambert said.
“In reality, a lot of us are not that far off struggling.” she said.
