Bendigo Foodshare doubles its Winter Food Drive target to help feed locals
Central Victorians are being asked to give generously to Bendigo Foodshare’s annual Winter Food Drive which was launched at Bendigo Marketplace today, to help provide food relief to people doing it tough this winter.
The local charity is aiming to collect 10,000kgs of non-perishable food over a 7 week period, doubling its previous food drive targets of 5,000kgs.
The Winter Food Drive will run throughout all 18 Bendigo supermarkets (Aldi, Coles, IGA and Woolworths) as well as in community with the help of major sponsors Bendigo Marketplace and Bendigo Toyota together with other local businesses, schools and organisations.
The Winter Food Drive officially starts Friday 26 July and ends on Friday 13 September.
Bendigo Foodshare CEO, Michelle Murphy said local families are struggling with the rising costs of living and thousands of people need support each week.
“We know the face of food relief has changed these past few years, many seeking food relief have never had to reach out before in their lives and it includes families with two working adults,” Ms Murphy said.
“We’re asking the community to purchase a few extra items at their next shop and donate some pantry staples into the specially marked yellow bins located in all supermarkets across Bendigo.
“We’ve set the community an ambitious 10,000kg target, but we know they can dig deep for others less fortunate. To help reach our goal, we’re also looking for businesses to chip in a donation of food, or to host their own food drive in their workplace.
“We plan to move into our new warehouse in Golden Square at the end of next month, which has triple the storage capacity than our current site, so this donated food is going to be extremely helpful in filling our bare shelves so we can help fill empty tummies.
“All the collected food will be passed onto our 85+ partner organisations across central Victoria who collectively help feed around 13,000 people each week.”
Food donations can always be dropped off to Bendigo Foodshare’s warehouse at 2/43 Havilah Road, Long Gully between 9am – 3pm, Monday to Friday.
More information can be found at www.bendigofoodshare.org.au/fooddrive.