Shelves cleared at food collective

FOLLOWING a meeting in early June, Buninyong Community Collective has closed for trading.

The bulk food provider closed its doors later that month with the aim of relaunching in June, 2023 dependant on community interest.

Former BREAZE board member and BCC coordinator Paul Duggan said the group has struggled to maintain their operations since the pandemic.

“It really comes down to COVID. We opened in November 2018, built up to 50 plus members and typical of wholefoods, you lose half each year to build up again with renewals,” he said.

“We were in the process of opening up again when COVID hit and it was hard to attract people then because they couldn’t come out.

“The idea is you come along, grab whatever, have a chat. It’s a real community thing and we lost that aspect.”

With 10 members at the time of closure, the collective has sold off most of its stock and donated items to charities like the Ballarat Soup Bus.

Buninyong Community Collective is an affiliated BREAZE group and the remaining assets may be donated to Boomerang Bags Buninyong, Ballarat Tool Library, and Ballarat Repair Cafe should their closure be permanent.

The group will meet in the first half of next year to determine whether to continue, and Mr Duggan said it’s up to locals to drive the decision.

“It’s really down to community interest. If there seems to be a groundswell of interest then we’ll relaunch like what we tried to do in January,” he said.

“That means calling a general meeting, advertising in the local paper and then we’d need 50 plus people to sign up and get it rolling again.”