“They’ve got nowhere to go and they’re hungry. We’ve never seen a crisis like this.”

What happens when a community already more disadvantaged than most is hit by a natural disaster? In this story from the frontline, Silvana, a volunteer cook from one of Foodbank’s Member Charities, shares her reflections on her town’s worst crisis in living memory.

When devastating floods hit Caboolture, many people were already barely keeping afloat. There was the rising cost of living, along with job losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Rent and house prices had also skyrocketed, even pushing some people into homelessness.

Silvana is a volunteer cook at Foodbank’s Member Charity, Caboolture Community Action. Before the floods, up to 200 people living with disadvantage would come to her for free hot meals every week to keep their hunger at bay. She and the other volunteers would also pack and deliver hampers to families struggling to keep food on the table.

When the flood came, it amplified the adversity like never before. The flood waters damaged homes and threatened lives. And after the water receded, many people discovered their homes were now inhabitable. All their possessions – including food – had been destroyed. Few people were left untouched.

“The floods have affected people from all walks of life. We’ve had people coming to us hungry who were well off before. One lovely family came in after the floods. The mum and dad had jobs and the kids were doing well in school. But they’d lost everything and were now living in their car.” – Silvana

To make things worse, the charity’s op shop that helps fund the food and essentials, had flooded. It had to close, so there was little money to run the food service.

“People were coming to us saying ‘I’m hungry. I haven’t eaten today. I haven’t had a hot meal. Could you please heat us something up?’ It was heartbreaking.” – Silvana

At this overwhelming time, a lifeline came. Because of your generous donations to the Foodbank Queensland Flood Appeal, we were able to provide Caboolture Community Action with additional emergency food. It was such a relief for Silvana and her colleagues to know they could keep those people most in need fed, so they could focus on the mop up and rebuilding their lives.

Foodbank provided Silvana and the team with key staples like rice, pasta, baked beans and other canned foods and UHT milk, as well as ready-to-eat frozen casseroles and curries for flood-affected locals to microwave and eat at their emergency accommodation. Caboolture Community Action were now able to pack more crisis hampers, which people gratefully received.

“It’s a sad and happy time. Sad because these people were already struggling to pay the rent, and now they’ve lost everything, including their furniture and bedding. But happy because we are able to go out and provide some comfort, giving them hot meals, a hamper, a hug and a conversation.” – Silvana

Silvana wants Foodbank’s supports to know how thankful the Caboolture Community Action team are of the support provided to their community when it was severely impacted by flooding.

“Caboolture Community Action began as a small barbeque in the park for the homeless and now we are providing over 20,000 meals and hampers a year. I feel grateful, thankful and blessed that Foodbank’s donors are helping us support our fellow community members who are living with severe hardship.” – Silvana

Your generosity helps Foodbank provide emergency food and groceries to frontline charities across the state, like Caboolture Community Action, to help local families get back on their feet.

Every $1 you donate provides two nutritious meals to someone facing hunger. Thank you for making a difference.

If you are a Queensland charity,  Foodbank Queensland membership is a great way to support your food relief projects, offering your organisation a reliable source of food and groceries all year round.

If you are in a position to help Foodbank Queensland provide more food across the state to support Queenslanders in need, please consider joining the fight against hunger as a regular giver.

Sunny Queen Eggs are feeding hungry Aussies!

We are so egg-cited to see these purple eggs in store! Foodbank’s valued partner, Sunny Queen Australia, has launched an incredible initiative in support of Foodbanks across the country to feed families in need. Reach for a purple Sunny Queen egg carton on your next grocery shop and feel egg-cellent about supporting families who need a helping hand.

“These purple egg cartons strengthen Sunny Queen’s long history of supporting the wonderful work Foodbank does. Unfortunately for many Australian families, stretching the weekly income so that they are able to buy enough food to properly feed everyone in their household is getting much tougher with rising costs of living. Sunny Queen is proud to support Foodbank in the fight against hunger. Our new egg pack is another way we can work together to support families in need. – Sunny Queen’s GM of Marketing, Isabelle Dench.

This cause-related campaign is an eggs-tension of Sunny Queen’s year-round support, which sees Australia’s most-loved egg brand donate around 1,000 eggs per day to Foodbank. In less than eight weeks, more than 240,000 egg packs have been sold in support of Foodbank. What an incredible community achievement! We couldn’t do what we do without our wonderful supporters. Thank you to everyone who has bought a purple egg pack since the launch. If you haven’t yet, there is still time with the campaign running until December 2022.

Read more about Sunny Queen here: www.sunnyqueen.com.au

Thanks to Foodbank Supporters, this struggling mum received a knock on the door that changed everything. 

The scary truth is it only takes one setback to push a person into the nightmare of hunger…  It happened to Queensland mum Anne. She had a stable job and had so many plans for her young children.

Through no fault of her own, Anne was pushed below the poverty line after suffering a serious injury and was forced to skip meals to make ends meet. The young mum suffered the loss of her speech and ability to walk. With no means of income and only a small disability pension, it was often only enough to pay for her therapy and medications.

Whenever she could, Anne scraped together enough for noodles, Weet-Bix, or bananas. Many times though, she’d simply go to bed early to avoid the burning hunger or drink warm water to fill herself up. Not having enough to eat made Anne feel worthless.

“Sometimes I wouldn’t eat for days, as I wanted to save what little bit of money I had left, to provide for my kids during their visits. I was often starving, but my babies would always be happy, so I decided it was worth it.” – Anne

Thanks to generous supporters like you, Anne received a knock on the door that changed everything. A food hamper was placed in her arms.

“It was overwhelming. In the hamper was everything to stock my pantry full. Things like flour, sugar, cereal, spaghetti, and tinned goods. Thinking about it still makes me smile.” – Anne

As the cost of living continues to rise, more and more Queensland families like Anne’s are experiencing desperate hardship and are struggling to put food on the table. We need your help to get food to families like Anne’s who need it most.

“Getting help to feed myself has made me realise good people are out there. Some of the nicest ones are strangers who support the work of Foodbank. It feels so good to be able to eat. Thank you!” – Anne

Every $1 you donate will provide two nutritious meals to someone facing hunger like Anne.

*This is a real Queensland story of hardship. Anne’s name is changed to her protect identity.

Thank you for giving food and hope to flood affected Queenslanders

In early March 2022, Foodbank Queensland launched a Flood Appeal to help get emergency food and drinking water to flood affected Queenslanders in desperate need. Sadly, many Foodbank Member Charities were contacting us for more food, well above our standard supply volumes, due to an increased community need, flooded food stock and damaged facilities.

That’s why your support was so important. Thanks to our generous supporters, more than 220,000 meals have been supplied to the impacted regions across our state over five months, from March to July 2022.

As Queensland’s largest and most connected hunger relief charity, Foodbank continues to have a vital role to play. We know that flood recovery will take many months, and sadly for some families, home repairs will span years. We will continue working hard with our frontline Member Charities to support these communities with additional food supplies to meet demand, thanks to the support of our donors and the tireless work of many volunteers.

In these times of crisis, we are so grateful to have your support!