Asher pledges $4m for new Feed Me hub

Liberal candidate for Corangamite Stephanie Asher (centre) with Feed Me founder and chief executive officer Lana Purcell and board chair Glenn Mills. Photo: JAMES TAYLOR

THE hard and vital work of the Feed Me charity will be doubled across the Bellarine, Geelong and Surf Coast through a $4 million election commitment from Liberal candidate for Corangamite Stephanie Asher.

With a handful of days left before the May 21 poll, Ms Asher pledged earlier this week that a re-elected Morrison Liberal Government would contribute the funding towards the construction and fit out of a new food production and distribution centre with a full commercial kitchen that would support the efforts of Feed Me Bellarine, Feed Me Surf Coast, and Feed Me Geelong.

The three arms of the not-for-profit food relief charity presently operate from a main facility in Ocean Grove as well as in Newtown and Torquay, and the new hub would be built on a yet-to-be-acquired site likely to be located somewhere on the eastern side of Geelong.

“My strong Local Plan for Corangamite is all about building stronger, better connected and supported communities,” Ms Asher said.

“Feed Me does an outstanding job supporting those in need across our area and this investment will ensure they can continue their vital work into the future.”

The hub will transform Feed Me’s efforts and effectively allow them to service twice the amount of people they do now, with the number of meals cooked each week to grow from 7,000-8,000 to 16,000, the number of families fed each week to grow from 2,000 to somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000, and the complete elimination of waiting lists.

The final location will be determined following Feed Me’s analysis of land availability.

Speaking at the Feed Me Bellarine centre earlier this week, Feed Me founder and chief executive officer Lana Purcell said the charity was experiencing a rise of demand from Lara and North Geelong, which was difficult to service from the Ocean Grove operations in Sinclair Street, but establishing the hub closer to Geelong would improve that.

She said the $4 million commitment would “absolutely” go most of the way towards covering the full cost of constructing and fitting out the new centre.