You decide how much to donate from each pay, and your donations are pre-tax, reducing your taxable income. Double your impact by asking your employer if they match donations.

It is easy to set up through your payroll system, eliminating the need for you to arrange cash or cheques or set up direct debits.

Additionally, workplace giving creates a ripple effect. When employees see their coworkers giving, especially when employers match donations, it builds a culture of compassion and shared purpose. This collective effort can lead to real, lasting change – not just for the charity, but for the communities they support. 

It quickly became evident that she would be unable to work at all, and Lisa’s work leave evaporated. Her full-time job that was her safety net, was gone in an instant. She hasn’t been able to work since. A terrifying concept – considering the cost-of-living crisis which has been swirling around for years now, and the never-ending bills which land in our inboxes and mailboxes like clockwork, only to be more expensive than the last. 

“I think that Foodbank is the difference between eating and not eating. Some weeks, I don’t have money for food, and this is where I come because I can’t afford the supermarkets. Sometimes you can’t get absolutely all of your shopping there, but it can make a big difference to supplement what you do have to buy at the supermarket. Some weeks, without Foodbank, I wouldn’t be eating at all.” 

Every dollar makes a big difference. Your generous support ensures we are there when we are needed the most. 

This expansion allows us to provide a more diverse and inclusive product range that reflects the cultural, dietary, and nutritional needs of our community. We’re focusing on allergen-friendly options and culturally relevant staples to ensure we can support everyone who turns to us for help.

Our customer shopping experience is heavily reliant on very generous donations from producers, farmers and manufacturers. Recognising that some level of consistency for shelf stable items was important for our customers, we have wanted to expand out range of essential products for a long time, however the right level of funding was difficult to secure.

We are thrilled that we can now expand our range of essential products to ensure a constant supply of these items for our customers no matter what day of the week it is. Just some of the products already added includes oats, black tea, lactose-free UHT full cream milk, hygiene products, dishwashing liquid and laundry powder.

We can’t wait to see the rest of the range rolled out in July, thank you VGW Holdings, watch this space.

The wonderful people at Packaging R Us enabled us to purchase a heavily discounted Vacuum Seal machine which has made a huge impact on the meals we can offer. Vacuum-sealed meals offer a convenient way to store and preserve food, extending shelf life and maintaining quality.

One of the biggest advantages is extended shelf life – by removing air and sealing food in airtight packaging, vacuum sealing keeps food fresher for longer – both in the fridge and freezer. Our meals now have a 3-week shelf-life.

This method also preserves the flavour, texture, and nutritional value of meals. With no exposure to oxygen, food maintains its original taste and doesn’t suffer from freezer burn or spoilage.

Our pre-prepared meals are distributed through our six branches in Perth, Geraldton, Kalgoorlie, Peel, Bunbury and Albany. They can be obtained in the branches or are made available from our charity partners which range from supporting the elderly who need easy no fuss meals to domestic violence survivors who may need a meal in the middle of the night quickly or someone going through serious illness who does not have the energy to cook. The list is endless.

We are so pleased that our new vacuum sealing machine allows us to include a wider variety of produce in our pre-prepared meals making them more delicious and nutritious for our customers.

Anyone for satay tonight? Check out our recipe of the month. 

A shocking 89% of customers surveyed said that the reason they didn’t have enough food was because they had to prioritise other more important things they had to pay for such as rent, bills and medicine. 87% agreed food was far too expensive to purchase at regular supermarkets. 

The survey also revealed that 71% of participants use Foodbank as their first choice for grocery shopping, with 85% accessing our services for protein (59%), grocery (87%) and fruit and vegetables (85%). We were grateful to see that many customers expressed their gratitude for our services and the positive impact it has had on their lives with staff described as helpful, welcoming and respectful. 

We often hear about people skipping meals to feed their children or even their pets – just over half of the customers who responded to the survey backed up this claim. They said that they were hungry but didn’t eat because they didn’t have enough money for food, almost 80% said they had to cut the size of their meal or skip it altogether, almost half were worried about their food running out  before they could afford to buy more, while 34% admitted to losing weight because of a lack of money to buy food. 

The survey also enabled us to gather some very valuable information about what our customers would like to see improved or more of, and thanks to generous funding, we have already been able to get the ball rolling on serval initiatives to improve the overall customer experience. This includes a state-wide project to carry more culturally diverse and dietary-specific foods, including vegetarian and gluten-free options and wanting more budget-friendly meats and essential household items. 

Calls for better signage have been addressed at all of our branches, and we are working on a more diverse product selection and product availability through our Everyday Food Essential expansion project which is scheduled for roll-out in July. 

The survey responses showed clearly how the cost-of-living crisis has impacted households of varying demographics, those renting (56%), homeowners (37%) and a huge 71% of people who indicated that they lived with other people such as family or housemates to help make end meet. 

The food and grocery budget is usually the first thing most people cut leading to a fast-growing problem of food insecurity. It can affect anyone and could be the next-door neighbour, a family member or a friend and it is not necessarily obvious. It is an issue that remains hidden due to the stigma attached to reaching out for help.

We encourage people to come to us before their circumstances dictate that they are in trouble of losing the roof over their heads or that they have to turn their electricity off or not change the tyres on their car. We not only offer very affordable and nutritious food for families that are on a shoestring budget. By shopping with us, a small part of an already stretched budget can make all the difference.  

Launched in 2020 as an urgent public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ERFAS was designed to be a simple, centralised access point to emergency and food relief services. The service has evolved into a long-term, sustainable model that now supports thousands of people every year. Since the service launch, more than 140,000 calls for help have been answered.

Central to ERFAS’s strength is its collaborative approach as it works under the umbrella of the Financial Wellbeing Collective – a partnership of 12 community service providers committed to addressing the drivers and impacts of financial hardship in Western Australia.  Anglicare WA has a team of dedicated assessors working to deliver the ERFAS service, with partners Communicare, Mission Australia, The Spiers Centre and Uniting WA all working closely alongside to deliver emergency relief. These efforts are amplified by partnering with further external organisations such as Foodbank, Starting Over Support, St Patrick’s Community Support Centre, Vinnies WA, and The Salvation Army WA, which ensures clients receive seamless, statewide support.

Due to the big increase in the demand for ERFAS services, a referrals assessor from the Financial Wellbeing Collective has been established at the Foodbank Perth Airport branch to assist customers with their needs onsite, five days a week for just over a year.

Having a dedicated Financial Support Worker onsite to assist customers has been invaluable. The month of May saw the ERFAS phone line receive almost 3,000 calls from individuals seeking various types of assistance, with the primary reason for reaching out being cost of living pressures. Almost 800 referrals were issued for Foodbank, with requests for food relief climbing to the highest point to date this year.

Being a part of Financial Wellbeing Collective allows ERFAS to be a part of a wrap-around service that, for our customers, relieves the burden of food costs meaning individuals can redirect their limited financial resources toward other critical areas, such as healthcare, paying rent or paying utility bills.

We are so grateful for this collaboration which makes reaching out for help so much easier for those seeking emergency assistance. You can watch Anglicare’s video celebrating their 5 years and work with us here.