By Aaron Cordy
SHEPPARTON Foodshare has long been a pillar in the community for people in need. They have distributed 4.8M kilos of food, the equivalent of 9.6M meals to local people in need, making them one of the region’s essential services.
The help offered by Foodshare largely comes from the generosity of local people, community groups, and businesses like Everyday Supplies, which announced a new partnership between the pair last week.
Shepparton Foodshare Executive Officer, Dee Healey, was thrilled to announce the new partnership.
“Jac, Brad and the team at Everyday Supplies are well known in our community. They are no strangers to supporting a cause that they believe benefits the community in which they operate their business. We are so grateful for this valuable support,” said Ms Healey.
For the past three years, Everyday Supplies has been a ‘Monthly Partner’ of Shepparton Foodshare, an initiative that sees a person or business commit to a month that they will provide a financial contribution to support Foodshare’s operating costs during their partner month.
Under the new partnership, Everyday Supplies will donate their products and services, providing greater impact for their support. It is estimated that it will reduce Shepparton Foodshare’s operational costs by around $8,000 to $10,000 annually.
“We know many people are willing to be a ‘Monthly Partner,’ so we thought it best to open up our spot to someone else while still contributing to the operational costs. Being able to assist in taking away the everyday expenses of Shepparton Foodshare in this way ensures that they can keep running costs lower and focus on what they do best in helping the community,” said co-owner of Everyday Supplies, Jac McCarty.
Foodshare distributes food to registered emergency relief agencies, schools, community meals programs, faith organisations and neighbourhood houses. The need for food relief has never been greater, with Shepparton Foodshare distributing a record 490,000 kilos of food for the financial year ending 2024, a 30 per cent increase on the previous year, and the largest annual distribution since inception.
“Operational funding for us has never been guaranteed, it is partnerships such as this that support these necessary operating costs and enables us to keep our focus firmly on providing food to local people that need it most,” said Ms Healy.
