Feed Me seeking donations to combat food shortage

THE Feed Me bases across the Bellarine, Geelong and the Surf Coast are suffering from a food shortage and are appealing to the wider community to donate.

Feed Me Bellarine, Geelong and Surf Coast are undergoing a “rough patch” in supply and have made the call out to residents for extra donations.

A list of specific food items has also been disseminated via Feed Me’s social media outlets with items such as rice, baked beans, quick meal sachets, tinned/canned foods, cereals, coffee, and snack bars on the list to name a few.

Co-founder of Feed Me Bellarine Anthony Woodbury noted the food shortage is due to numerous factors.

“For us it was a mixture of things,” Mr Woodbury said.

“Our management team was not able to get on top of acquiring the donations due to our latest lockdown, but it has been a build-up since COVID-19 started 18 months ago.

“Large companies aren’t donating as much; people are not spending as much with regards to importing and exporting and it has completely changed the way we usually do things.”

Mr Woodbury used the analogy of these factors having a “snowball effect” all the way through the clientele to not only Feed Me’s operations, but also other food charities.

Feed Me Bellarine has reached out to the community for support on several occasions, but when the group has had to lean on crowdfunding it is a rare occasion.

Mr Woodbury believes that with restrictions loosening, the charity’s usual stream of donations should resume in time.

“It doesn’t happen very often, and we have been pretty good because we have a lot of people that help,” Mr Woodbury said.

“But I think our donations stream should pick up soon. People are still wary of what they spend their money on, but it will pick up.”

Since Feed Me Bellarine put out the call, it has seen an increase in donations to Ocean Grove in particular, but it is hopeful more pantry items will be sent to its bases of operations.

The pandemic has exacerbated the network’s workload given a year ago, Feed Me Bellarine, Geelong and Surf Coast were sending food to 700 families every week.
That number has more than doubled to 1,300 families per week.

There are two options available in donating food to the Feed Me Network.

Option 1 is arriving to a facility and dropping off a donation in-person.

Option 2 is by placing a delivery order to one of the three Feed Me locations.

Feed Me asks to ensure your order is booked to arrive at one of the three sites from Monday to Friday between 9am to 4pm.

Feed Me Bellarine- 24 Sinclair St, Ocean Grove
Feed Me Surf Coast – Warehouse 9, 7-9 Cylinders Drive, Torquay
Feed Me Geelong – 24 Lambert Ave, Newtown

Orders for the food and groceries you wish to donate can be delivered via Coles, Woolworths, or any grocery service of your choice.