Geelong Food Relief extend hours to meet ongoing demand

GEELONG Food Relief hopes to meet increased demands across the community by extending its hours at the North Geelong mini mart.

The local food security agency will begin its extended hours at the Morgan Street site this Saturday, May 20 with the store opening at 9am and closing at 12:30pm.

Geelong Food Relief has also extended hours on Tuesday and Thursday and will be open from 10am to 7pm. Hours remain at 10am-3pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, while the service will remain closed on a Sunday.

Geelong Food Relief CEO Andrew Schauble said the extension of opening hours would hopefully help meet the demands of more and more people who need food relief in the community.

“Our core mission is to get more food into the community for people who need it.

“Food insecurity pressure has only gotten a lot worse with recent interest rate rises and there are plenty of people who are working really hard but still need more support.

“Extending our hours will hopefully allow us to access more and more of our community in need.”

Mr Schauble said locals or food agencies who come into the North Geelong mini mart can get up to six or seven times the amount of food that they would get at a regular supermarket for the same voucher price.

“People who might have a twenty-point voucher with us can spend it on probably close to $120 worth of groceries…. that’s six or seven times the amount you can get at some of the supermarkets.

“Agencies in the past have had to provide locals with supermarket vouchers because they just can’t quite reach our services for varying reasons.

“Ultimately, we hope that extending our hours can help some of those full-time workers, families and others who haven’t been able to make it to us to come in and make sure they have some food security.”

The extended hours will only apply to the North Geelong mini-mart and not the Little Smythe Street mini mart in Geelong.

To find out more or to volunteer at Geelong Food Relief, head to geelongfoodrelief.org/