Works underway on food warehouse

PROGRESS was celebrated last week a construction officially started at the site of Bendigo Foodshare’s new warehouse.

Premier and Member for Bendigo East, Jacinta Allan was joined by Member for Bendigo West, Maree Edwards, City of Greater Bendigo mayor Cr Andrea Metcalf as well as the chair of Bendigo Foodshare, Sue Clarke in breaking ground at the site.

“For so many in our community it’s been tough, it’s getting tougher and there’s a growing need for the work that Foodshare does on behalf of our community,” Ms Allan said.

Bendigo Foodshare provides food to thousands of people throughout central Victoria each week, an accomplishment Ms Allan said makes the community stronger.

“That’s why we’ve been so keen to provide the practical funding support but also to lend our support every single day,” she said.

Construction of the warehouse is set to cost $3.8 million and is being financed with support from philanthropic, business, and government donations.

Chair of Bendigo Foodshare, Sue Clarke, said it was amazing to see the sod being turned on a project that had been four years in planning.

“Really for us it’s the end of a very long plan to be able to increase access to food for families that don’t have that security to food for one reason or another,” she said.

Demand for support from Bendigo Foodshare has increased in recent years and the new warehouse could enable the organisation to increase their capacity up to three times.

“You see the amazing partnerships we have here, well just extrapolate that across the region, we work with 94 food distribution points across the region,” Ms Clarke said.

“We get to work in Elmore, Loddon, and all over Kyneton and we know it makes a difference to people’s lives.”

The need for food relief in the region is so great at the moment Ms Clarke said one location serviced by Foodshare fortnightly can run out of supplies in hours.

“We want to be able to do that sort of thing regularly but at the moment we’re stretched and we just don’t have the room to store more food,” she said.

“This [the warehouse] will provide so much more safe room for food to be stored and to be stored safely.

Bendigo Foodshare’s new warehouse and community food hub is scheduled to be completed by October next year.