Torquay Food Aid gets behind the wheel

TORQUAY Food Aid (TFA) volunteers were suddenly dismissed from their long-time Barwon Health site on the Surf Coast Highway last week, inspiring a rebrand and delivery service during the coronavirus pandemic.

The charity’s secretary Lois Gill said she and a small army of helpers moved their mini supermarket, non-perishable stock and workstation “in a hurry” on Tuesday afternoon following Barwon Health’s decision to stand down its volunteers in response to COVID-19 social distancing restrictions.

Ms Gill said Barwon Health also closed its Torquay facility on the same day.

“We have to re-establish our identity because we’re no longer, really, connected to Barwon Health.

“We found out at 1.30pm on the Tuesday and we were open on the Wednesday (for TFA’s weekly food drive), so we had to get some of our volunteers in very quickly to shift all the stock. It was chaotic.”

She said TFA was temporarily operating out of the Torquay Christian Fellowship building on Grossmans Road until a new site’s found in partnership with the Surf Coast Shire council.

In the interim, TFA will deliver food parcels to clients in Bellbrae, Torquay and Jan Juc.

“We’re trying to negotiate to find a home. We will not be able to run our shop but we’ll offer deliveries until the crisis is over, then we will re-establish our crisis facility, which will become Torquay Food Aid Incorporated.

“We don’t want people coming up to get anything, it’s too dangerous.”

Torquay Food Aid chair Michael Buckley said a promising number of new volunteers had generously offered their time to get the delivery service on the road.

“We have got a whole new cohort of people offering to volunteer to do packing and deliveries for it the service, which is fantastic.

“We’ve got probably three dozen plus another 30 or more in the wings, because most of our original volunteers are in the 70s plus age group where they shouldn’t be outside.”

Ms Gill advised people wanting to donate non-perishable items to do so at the Ryan’s IGA drop-off point, while Mr Buckley appealed for financial donations to TFA’s bank account (BSB: 633-108, ACC: 156-144-321).

“We would really appreciate donations, but people can either put their bags in the box at IGA or hold off until we have our new site and they’ll be able to drop them off at about midday to 1pm on a Wednesday.

“Please don’t hesitate to contact us, and don’t worry. There’s someone in Torquay to contact to get food if you need it.”

For regular updates, follow @TorquaysFoodAid on Facebook.