Surf Coast Freemasons support Feed Me after theft

FEED ME founder and chief executive officer Lana Purcell says she greatly appreciated the Surf Coast Freemasons’ $5,000 donation to help feed those in need.

Ms Purcell said any donation meant a lot because Feed Me received no government support.

“And because the times are so tough, we do have a donation market where people can donate but most people don’t have disposable income any more,” she said.

“We’re getting busier and we’re getting less donations for products that people are taking in our market so it affects our financial stability.

“So a donation like that can literally convert to us being able to produce 5,000 meals but also just secures us for a little bit longer.”

Lodge of the Great Ocean Road worshipful master Bob Pullin said he responded after seeing that food was stolen from Feed Me Geelong in January.

Ms Purcell said protein was stolen from the freezers at the back of the Geelong store at about 2am.

“It’s where we get to triage the most important products for our meal production and for our families.”

She said they lost a lot of stock, which hurt the organisation in a huge way.

“We actually reached out to the community and people like Bob, they noticed the effect that it had on us. And so they helped replace the protein and then we were able to actually install a security system into our organisation based on funds that came from the community.”

Mr Pullin agreed the Freemasons did not traditionally publicise their donations.

“Generally speaking, Freemasonry has been very quiet about the donations they give but that’s slowly starting to change… now the rules have changed a bit and we’re free to go to the media if we so desire,” he said.

He said the lodge held wood raffles in Anglesea about three times a year to help raise money.

“We raffle a trailer load of wood at Anglesea on a Saturday morning. We sell 100 tickets at $10 each and they fly out the door,” he said.

Pullin said the Freemasons Foundation Victoria contributed $4,000 to the donation.

“Their criteria is that if we’re giving to a charity, it doesn’t matter who the charity is, but we as a lodge have to put up 20 per cent and they will then put up the balance.”

Ms Purcell said Feed Me was trying to reach new people and help prevent them from feeling shame and embarrassment for getting access to the service.

“People that are reaching out for help have never asked for help before,” she said.

“And they also don’t qualify for a lot of the support services in the region because they might be asset rich but cash poor.

“They might have their house but they can’t pay their mortgage.”