It was SUPER kind of you!
When Foodbank asked Victorians to help carry a load for families last year, you didn’t let them down. As if you ever would!
Cardboard boxes bursting with beautiful food whizzed around the state turning gloom into bloom, and tears into cheers. That’s 25 MILLION MEALS that YOU helped create.
Now it’s your turn to unpack and enjoy an express delivery of good news…
“Thank
you so much. You’ve been wonderful... I can’t tell you what this food means.”
Cecilia, market visitor
It was always going to take a Hercules sized response from our community to support the epic scale of need leading into Christmas (try 69,000 people a day), but we didn’t expect such bedazzling feats of generosity. Like ABC Melbourne host Sammy J who kayaked the mighty Yarra River as part of ABC Gives to Foodbank to help put 700,000 MEALS on awfully empty Christmas tables.
Speaking of heart, 295 of you set up Virtual Christmas tables online for Foodbank including a couple hosted by our big-hearted friends Zöe Foster Blake and Melissa Leong. All up we raised over 5.4 MILLION SEATS in our ’24 Christmas Appeal… and by seats, we mean beautiful, healthy meals delivered with YOUR help.
Victorians truly are the most generous people on earth (nah, we’re not biased).
Cecilia and her son (pictured below) were so overwhelmed by the kindness, community spirit and help from our volunteer Edi (who loaded bags and boxes into their boot without raising a sweat) at our Christmas Market they couldn’t stop handing out hugs – including an extra special one just for
What we could do last year, thanks to you!
DISTRIBUTED 4.64 MILLION KILOS OF FRESH FRUIT AND VEGETABLES. WEIGHING MORE THAN 100 TRAMS!
DELIVERED 12.5 MILLION SLICES OF BREAD. ENDTO-END THAT’S MELBOURNE TO SYDNEY AND BACK.
Fact is Australia produces MORE than enough food to feed everyone. In Victoria alone, 125,000 TONNES of edible fruit and veg is lost on farms every year. Why? When crops do exceptionally well, growers end up with a surplus they can’t sell – and can’t afford to transport to charities like ours. Of course, WE want that surplus here at Foodbank… so our unique approach to sourcing is making sure that happens.
Working alongside farmers, growers and packing houses to understand how their season is shaping up, we provide innovative and sustainable ways to secure any surplus - supplying collection bins, and finding empty space on trucks to move the produce. Growers can then donate the product in a really positive way. Tangibly helping Victorians, without the cost of getting the food to us. Wins all round!
TRUCKED 2 MILLION LITRES OF MILK AROUND THE STATE. ENOUGH TO FILL 10,000 BATHTUBS.
That’s a whole lot of breakfasts fuelling students for a busy day ahead! How we makey breaky hearts.
THAT’S BREAKFAST HEARTS OF COURSE!
A bunch of new schools have just joined our School Breakfast Clubs program – a program that makes a nutritious breakfast available to every student in the school. With 49% of breakfast club schools in metro areas and 51% in regional Vic, it’s a nice, even mix that’s working towards covering all corners of the state in partnership with Vic Government. But it’s not just about the numbers – it’s about the real impact happening in school hallways and classrooms. Last term, the program served up a whopping 903,314 net kilos of food, an 8.6% increase on the previous quarter.
Towards the end of last year, Foodbank had some very special guests drop in! Comedy legend Glenn Robbins boot scooted his way through the warehouse to celebrate his original Minimax spatula design. The wonderful Carrie Bickmore packed hamper upon hamper, and the hilarious Celia Pacquola ditched the gym for the day and got down to some heavy lifting and packing.
Huge thanks to all these
– and to YOU for
Imagine not being able to feed your family. Such a stressful, lonely place to be. Then you hear about a cool new supermarket in your neighbourhood… where you can fill a trolley to help nourish the people you love AND it’s completely free of charge. Ta da. We’ve just opened a supermarket EXACTLY like that at our Morwell and Ballarat Community Food Centres providing 100s OF LOCAL FAMILIES PER WEEK with trolleys full of fresh produce, dairy and all their pantry essentials. Putting the ‘super’ back into supermarket for hard hit regional communities – with YOUR support.
Our Food Fight fundraiser is back this year with double the goop and triple the fun. If you’re ready to roll up your sleeves and get messy for Foodbank in 2025, sign up your school.
An apple a day keeps the doctor away –how about a whole orchard’s worth?
This May, our goal is to pluck 50,000 apples straight from the trees at
Orchard, with the help of some serious corporate muscle. Our teams are signed up and red, red, ready to pick, to fundraise and just enjoy that outdoorsy vibe, right?
To be the shoulder Victorians can lean on, we rely on our Nourish Collective – our community of regular givers who show up for us every month with regular, reliable donations. 69,000 Victorians a day can rely on us, because we can rely on our wonderful regulars who together created over 3.4 million heartwarming meals over the last 12 months.
We think that’s pretty special. If you’d like to donate regularly to Foodbank, we’d love to welcome you to our Nourish Collective.
We already know you’re the kind of person who’s hungry for change – you’re already reading this newsletter, after all! If you’ve been thinking about stretching your impact a little further, how about hosting a fundraiser for Foodbank?
In just a few clicks you and your friends can swim, climb, run, trek, juggle, freeze, bake or star jump on the spot to raise money to help provide meals for families with your very own fundraising page.
Set up your Foodbank fundraiser now. Scan the QR code.
