Fletchers, Feed Me renew meals partnership

REAL estate agency Fletchers Bellarine has renewed its partnership with food charity Feed Me, with Fletchers donating the equivalent cost of 8,000 meals to be distributed by the charity to people and families in need across the Geelong region.

Started almost exactly a year ago, the arrangement sees Fletchers Bellarine donate the equivalent of 200 meals for every house it sells, and the agency gave an initial contribution equivalent to 5,000 meals to get things started.

Fletchers Bellarine senior associate Ben Roberts said the partnership had generated a total of about 20,000 meals so far.

“We’re happy to be involved and to help out, and to continue to contribute, and we will do so into the foreseeable future.

“You live in an area where you might not think there’d really be so many people who might need this, but they do.”

He said Fletchers Bellarine was happy to support the operations of Feed Me’s three arms: Feed Me Bellarine, Feed Me Surf Coast and Feed Me Geelong.

Feed Me founder and chief executive officer Lana Purcell welcomed the latest donation.

“It’s amazing, and it makes a huge difference to us,” she said.

“We’re delivering about 5,000 meals a week. Sometimes based on supply, it can go down; based on donations, it can go up.

“This means we can buy extra rice, and extra pasta so we can pump out more meals, so it definitely has a huge effect on the number of meals we can put out in the community.”

She said cost of living pressures meant Feed Me was now providing meals to many people who had never had to get access to any kind of charity or support organisation before.

“We’ve just added a new cohort – people who are working full-time that are having trouble paying all their bills, so accessing Feed Me helps them save some money.

“If they’re coming through our market or if they’re really doing it tough, it can take away the pressure of meals for the night or snacks to put in their kids’ lunchboxes.

“The need has absolutely increased.”

She said Food Bank Victoria had stopped delivering cold products to charities across the state, so Feed Me particularly needed donations of items such as milk and yoghurt.

“Anything in the refrigerated or frozen section would really help us.”

She said donations could be made at any of Feed Me’s locations – 24 Sinclair Street, Ocean Grove; 7-9 Cylinders Drive, Torquay; and 44 Westmoreland Street, St Albans Park.

For more information, head to feedme.org.au