PLANS are under way to develop a food bank in Shepparton to minimise food wastage and assist the increasing number of locals struggling to make ends meet, according to Salvation Army Operations Manager Hume Region, Roger Dowsett.
Still searching for a suitable location for the project, Mr Dowsett said that although having the idea for the food bank for quite some time, he was moved to action after seeing a significant rise in the number of people seeking help from the charity over the last 12 months.
“Times are getting tougher for people, other relief agencies are getting more people looking for help too.
They’re not just homeless but people who have homes and can’t afford to feed themselves anymore,’ he said.
“I talked things over with Trevor Barker who is the Manager of VicRelief Foodbank and set up similar thing in Yarrawonga and Cobram. We don’t want good food to be dumped, we want to get it back into the community.”
Although there are food salvage programs already operating in Shepparton, Mr. Dowsett hopes to combine the efforts of each into a united and more extensive program.
“We need to get this right; too often these things are set up and fall over,’ he said.
“The location needs to be somewhere central, somewhere where we will have room for coolrooms so that the food is not spoilt.”
Woolworths have already told Mr. Dowsett that it will donate food to the project but he is now looking for support from other local businesses.
“We’re looking for volunteers as well,’ he said.
“When that all happens is when the project will eventually get off the ground.”
VicRelief Foodbank estimates that 400,000 Victorians are food insecure, having irregular access to safe, nutritionally adequate, culturally acceptable food from non-emergency sources. It also estimates that Australians are throwing out more than five billion kilograms of food waste per year, of which three million kilograms goes into landfill as the second largest producer of methane gas, released as the food rots and decomposes.
To support the project phone Roger: 5833 1099, or email: roger.dowsett@aus.salvationarmy.org.
