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SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL NOT-FOR-PROFIT

Geelong Food Relief Centre is committed to providing the delivery of food aid services to disadvantaged members of the community throughout the Geelong region in a dignified and compassionate manner.

We continue to provide grocery supplies through the use of two mini-marts located in Geelong CBD and North Geelong to individuals and families who are facing financial hardship. Our mini-marts replicate a small supermarket where shoppers can choose the products they require for their families.

We also have a bulk distribution service present in North Geelong, which allows the GFRC to provide bulk foods to 40 agencies and schools that are present within the G21 region which includes Greater Geelong Region, Bellarine, Surf Coast, and Winchelsea to meet the demand of families in crisis.

GFRC also work in conjunction with welfare officers at schools located within this region to help school families that are facing crisis by providing them with Emergency Food and also provide schools with food for their breakfast clubs.

A day in the life of Geelong Food relief begins at 6.30 am when the drivers arrive.

We have a small truck and 4 vans that go out and pick up rescue food from Aldi, Coles and other food distributors before returning through the morning to unload for our volunteers to sort. How it is sorted is that if we wouldn’t eat something then we don’t expect our customers to.

With the food we put aside, we have a farmer who arrives 3 or 4 times a week and picks up this food to feed his cattle so nothing is wasted or going to landfill.

The volunteers then re-stock the shelves in the mini marts or repackage food that has arrived in bulk.

The kitchen by this time is also a hype of activity with the girls cooking some nutritious meals so that all the customer has to do is take it home and reheat it.

We then open the mini-marts between 9.30-10.00 am to welcome our customers.

We operate on a points voucher system that the customer obtains from an agency. The reason for this is the agency will conduct a quick assessment to find out if the client requires any other support such as financial support, somewhere to live, and many more reasons.

The amount of voucher points is usually based on the size of the family but a 20-point voucher is approximately equal to $80- $90 if they went to a supermarket.

We have coloured dots on each product so they can see how many points they have left.

Eg a Green dot equals 1 point, a Blue dot equals 2 points, etc. For example, a supermarket bag of fruit and vegetables equals 1 green dot. The most nutritious items are a Green dot.

The afternoon is spent cleaning such as sweeping, mopping, etc etc.

We have approximately 84 volunteers who work extremely hard but they are always chatting and laughing which is very important. They are worth their weight in gold.