The spread of COVID through Western Australia’s communities severely affected the number of regular and corporate volunteers across the state’s five regional Foodbank branches and the Perth Centre for Hunger Relief. Foodbank is WA’s leading hunger relief charity, and each month provides food to more than 55,000 disadvantaged Western Australians.
The charity serves as a link between food donors and more than 1,200 schools, welfare agencies and community support groups. Last year, the equivalent of 5.7 million meals were distributed to people in need. Foodbank WA also operates Australia’s largest school breakfast program by supporting students in more than 440 schools.
Since April 2022, Rotarians have stepped up to help pack essential pantry hampers along with various other bundles, such as hygiene packs and coffee and tea packs. More than 30 groups from numerous clubs have helped out.
On each shift, hundreds of hampers and bundles are prepared. The hampers are then distributed across the state through Foodbank WA’s six branches. The Mobile Foodbank service is then utilised to give the hampers to the most vulnerable and needy people in the cities and in remote communities.
“Foodbank is WA’s leading hunger relief charity, and each month provides food to more than 55,000 disadvantaged Western Australians.”
All Rotarians who have participated in the packing said that although the packing line required the use of not-often-used muscles, they all enjoyed the experience and found it very rewarding. The packing provided a chance to catch up with friends and partake in some team building.
Rotary also assists Foodbank WA in other ways, especially through the Christmas period, by supporting other initiatives such as Give a Feed and Cans for Christmas.
Food drives for Foodbank Going above and beyond, the Rotary Club of Kalamunda delivered 2.5 tonnes of food to Foodbank WA’s Centre for Hunger Relief in December 2021. The club organised food drives throughout seven shopping centres in Kalamunda, Lesmurdie and High Wycombe, and with the help of the Rotaract Club of Kalamunda, Swan Rotaract Club and the Soroptimist-Canning District, collected food donations from generous locals. The donations helped spread some much needed Christmas cheer to West Aussies doing it tough.
