IMAGINE not having enough food to feed yourself or your family, sadly for many people in our community, this is a reality.
Food insecurity and disadvantage in Greater Shepparton is higher than the state average, according to Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) 5.4% of people in our region have experienced food insecurity, compared to the state measure of 4.6%.
Shepparton Foodshare is the only local service that rescues and receives donations of food to redistribute to those in ‘necessitous circumstances’ in the Goulburn Valley.
Last year a record 380,000 kilos of food was collected from Foodshare by emergency relief agencies, schools and churches and distributed via school breakfast programs, community meals programs, food hampers and to individuals.
Shepparton Foodshare runs on volunteers, the caring and dedicated volunteer team provide around 75% of the hours required to operate the critical local service that provides food to registered agencies for the people they support.
The local service is expanding its food rescue operations, and its team of volunteers, to keep up with demand for food relief six days a week.
“We are grateful for all offers of support but what really need at the moment is volunteers who can contribute on a weekly basis and those that are capable of lifting and manual handling, are confident in representing Foodshare out in the community in our food rescue van and if they are licenced to operate a forklift it would be valuable however is not essential,” Shepparton Foodshare Operations Coordinator, Grace Grieve said.
If you are community minded, love making a difference and have a spare 3 to 15 hours each week to volunteer, you can make a world of difference to those in need around us, including children.
Volunteers undertake various functions from providing expertise on the skills-based Board to sorting and warehousing food, driving the food rescue van, packing food boxes and providing assistance to the agencies when they visit the warehouse to collect food.
Prospective volunteers must be prepared to undertake a police check and interview/induction process. For more information, please call 0432 517 329 or email
info@sheppartonfoodshare.org.au
