Geelong’s Food Relief Centre will receive more than $700,000 to boost its services to help meet a growing demand for food support across the Geelong regional community.
Minister for Disability, Ageing and Carers Luke Donnellan today joined Member for Geelong Christine Couzens to announce the funding as part of the government’s regional and community food relief programs.
The Geelong Food Relief Centre received $70,000 for a purpose-built refrigerated food transport van to guarantee delivery of fresh food throughout rural Geelong, including the Surf Coast and the Colac Otway shires.
Working in partnership with Deakin University, the Centre aims to streamline delivery of emergency food relief into isolated townships, boost cost effectiveness and improve service convenience. The centre provides support for around 48,000 people and 60 regional food agencies.
Under the Building Regional Food Relief Networks program, a further $368,750 has been invested to expand and improve existing services while $300,000 has been put towards the fit-out of the new Geelong Emergency Food Distribution Hub.
The Building Regional Food Relief Networks is a $3.5 million partnership with Foodbank Victoria to increase capacity of food distribution to those in need in regional areas by sourcing food from regional producers and providing the appropriate storage and distribution.
The Geelong Food Relief Centre is one of five regional food distribution hubs which also includes Albury-Wodonga Foodshare, Warrnambool and District Foodshare, Bendigo Foodshare and Mildura Foodshare.
Since the start of the pandemic the state government has invested more than $25 million to support people when and where they need food. This is additional to the $3.6 million the Government provides to Foodbank Victoria every year which provides 140,000 Victorians with food every month.
Geelong Food Relief Centre: geelongfoodrelief.org
Source: A state government media release