Foodbank Queensland and Sunny Queen Australia team up to put a smile on little faces this Easter

To help make Easter egg-stra special this year, Foodbank Queensland partnered with Sunny Queen Australia to distribute more than 600 dozen eggs and simple-to-create Easter activities to families in need.

Fifty food relief charities across South East Queensland received Sunny Queen’s Free Range smiley faced eggs and Easter activities via Foodbank’s Food Distribution Centre to help hundreds of struggling families enjoy the simple, sunny pleasures of eating, playing and creating together.

Foodbank Queensland CEO, Sara Harrup, said Sunny Queen Australia’s generous donation helped bring joy to families in need.

“For families struggling to put food on the table, Easter can be a challenging and isolating time,” she said.

“We are delighted to have partnered with Sunny Queen Australia to help make Easter brighter for Queensland families going without.”

The donation has helped families like Angela’s from Sunnybank who have faced hard times due to the pandemic.

“These eggs are going to help us put food on the table, even if it means toast and eggs for a meal,” she said.

“We are struggling so much with my partner out of work and still trying to find work after the COVID-19 period. Being able to pick up some food to get us through with five kids in the house has been a massive help. Even just scrambled eggs on toast. It’s a meal that our kids wouldn’t turn down.”

Foodbank’s Member Charities were grateful for the donation with Stewart King, Food Recovery Coordinator at Loaves and Fishes, speaking to the act of generosity.

“We are so grateful to Foodbank Queensland and Sunny Queen Australia for providing fresh eggs and Easter activities for our families doing it tough,” he said.

“Our families were so thankful when they received the eggs and Easter craft activities. These simple acts of kind-heartedness really make a difference for people facing hardship.”

General Manager of Marketing and Innovation at Sunny Queen, Isabelle Dench, spoke of Sunny Queen’s passion for supporting Aussies all year around – especially during festive seasons.

“Easter is a time for everyone to be together, enjoying a spread of good, delicious food and each other’s company. It’s also a great opportunity to spend time with our family and friends and have fun all together. Crafting cute little chickens or bunnies using our egg packs is just another way to enjoy precious moments with our little ones,” Isabelle said.

“At Sunny Queen, we are big believers that small acts of kindness can make a big difference. We hope our small gesture of donating our smiley-faced eggs and some cute and easy-to-make craft ideas can help make Queenslanders smile during Easter.”

“Through its charitable partnership with Foodbank, which spans many years of egg and egg product donations and most recently a refrigerated truck to support deliveries, Sunny Queen is proud to continue its vision of helping drive an end to hunger for all Aussies.”

Thank you, Sunny Queen Australia, for your very generous donation and for making a positive difference in local communities this Easter.

Heart of Love Foundation provides vital support to Queenslanders in crisis

Heart of Love Foundation is one of Foodbank Queensland’s Member Charities providing vital support to Queenslanders experiencing hunger. The foundation works closely with school breakfast programs, the homeless community, and families living at a local Brisbane caravan park, who often find themselves facing hardship after a job loss or health issue.

Sunil Naidu, Director of Heart of Love Foundation, said with the food provided by Foodbank, Heart of Love Foundation’s volunteers were able to prepare nutritious meals and food relief hampers and distribute them to more than 450 Queenslanders in need every week.

“We provide fresh meals daily to the needy in Brisbane city, who due to financial, health or family-related reasons cannot afford or source meals to feed themselves and their families. We also pack food hampers and deliver them to families in need across Queensland,” Sunil said.

“COVID-19 has increased the need for food, with many families facing poverty due to unemployment and increased health needs. Heart of Love Foundation, therefore, has increased service by frequently sourcing food from Foodbank to keep up with the increasing demands,” he said.

Last month, approximately 560 nutritious salad wraps were made and delivered in Brisbane city, 178 home cooked meals were provided in the Ipswich community, and 120 fresh meals were provided to residents of a caravan park in North Brisbane.

“The frequent food hampers and home-cooked meals we offer provide vital support to many, including a single dad from Brisbane who is wheelchair bound with four young children under 15 years. His wife passed away, so he is in dire need and his youngest son needs a hearing aid which he is saving for. The food hampers are welcomed by him every week.”

“We have a homeless man in Brisbane city who comes to help us distribute food and drinks every morning. He loves to help and it is great to see him smiling,” Sunil said.

Mr Naidu said he was very grateful for Foodbank’s ongoing support which helps them to alleviate hunger for many families in Queensland.

“We have been receiving food from Foodbank for the past two years and would not have been able to help families in need and the homeless without this support. There are times when we have bought food, with individuals supporting from their own pockets when immediate need has risen. But now with full support from Foodbank Queensland, we can supply food regularly to families in need,” Sunil said.

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.

Stanthorpe community helps to provide 60,000 meals to people in need

Foodbank Queensland receives food donations from farmers, manufacturers and retailers all around Queensland. Recently, we had the pleasure of visiting our wonderful food donors in the small rural town of Stanthorpe. 

In Stanthorpe, Foodbank Queensland has eight generous food donors who provide a large variety of nutritious food, including apples, peaches, broccoli, capsicums and eggs to help Queenslanders experiencing hunger. 

Many farmers across Queensland have been impacted by the events of last year, including drought, bushfires and COVID-19.

During our visit, we met with Kirra Pines Farming Managing Director, Tim Carnell, who said coming off a once in a 40-year drought into a once in a 100-year pandemic has been very tough. 

“Not only have we been battling our driest summer in years, COVID-19 has posed new kinds of challenges, with staffing limitations and increased health and safety requirements.” 

“However, despite any challenges we face at Kirra Pines Farming, we are committed to supporting people in need by donating produce that would have gone to waste to Foodbank, to ensure it goes to a good cause,” Tim said. 

On our trip to Stanthorpe, we also met with long-time supporters Bent and Haynes, who have very kindly been donating capsicums and tomatoes to Foodbank for more than 10 years. Sadly, the recent drought meant they struggled to grow any produce in 2020 at all. 

Other food donors in Stanthorpe include P Savio & Co, Zappia Produce Group, Snowman Orchard, Moore eggs, Gillebri Cotton Co (Moonrocks) and Lindsay Transport Stanthorpe.

In 2020, the Stanthorpe community donated enough food to provide 60,000 nutritious meals to Queenslanders going hungry.

Our wonderful food donors help us ensure that our shelves are never empty, and our Member Charities can continue distributing food across Queensland to those who need it most. A big thank you to all of our food donors for your continued generosity.

If you’re in the food industry and are interested in becoming a food donor, please click here.

Foodbank Queensland increases food storage capacity by 28%!

We are excited to announce that Foodbank Queensland’s pallet racking has been upgraded for the first time in 20 years!  

Thanks to the generosity of John T Reid Charitable Trusts, Foodbank Queensland has replaced all existing pallet racking, allowing us to improve our layout, increase food storage capacity and be more efficient and effective. 

Sara Harrup, Foodbank Queensland CEO, said the project has enabled Foodbank Queensland to rescue, store and distribute 28% more food. 

“The support of John T Reid Charitable Trusts has helped us increase the capacity of Foodbank Queensland, welcoming more Member Charities and providing more essential food and groceries to those in need,” Ms Harrup said. 

As the largest hunger relief charity in Queensland, providing food for over 25 million meals each year, Foodbank Queensland is committed to growing and adapting to meet increased state-wide food relief demand.  

When Foodbank Queensland’s Morningside facility opened 20 years ago, one million kilograms of food was sourced and distributed annually. Twenty years later, in the same facility, we are now providing more than 14 million kilograms of essential food and groceries to support Queenslanders facing hardship. 

Foodbank Queensland’s impact has grown year on year as we work tirelessly towards our vision of a Queensland without hunger. Every day, up to 32 trucks full of donated food and groceries arrive at Foodbank Queensland to support Queenslanders in crisis. By creating more spaces for storage, we can now accept and distribute up to 292 additional pallets of food every day.

“There is never enough food. We are a big family and there are a lot of bills to pay.” 

Maria, her three brothers and two sisters recently moved to Australia with their mother. A close-knit family, they were all eager to start a new chapter and leave their difficult life as refugees behind. 

“Before we came to Australia, life was so hard for us. But then we got the chance to come here, and it was like a dream.” – Maria 

Maria’s mother is learning English so she can find work and the children are studying hard, hoping to do well and go on to get good jobs. However, they often find there isn’t enough money to buy food for everyone once the rent and bills are paid. 

That’s why your support is so important. With your generosity, we can help to deliver nutritious food to the homes of families like Maria’s. 

“There are a lot of bills and we don’t have jobs. We are still students. For bills as well as groceries, it’s a lot of money. But once we began getting food parcels, we started to have enough food for everyone. Now once every two weeks, we can have some meat and pantry items.” – Maria 

It’s thanks to the generosity of people like you that we can support communities like Maria’s, making sure our local Member Charities have food to share with families in need.  

“We love the food from Foodbank. We all eat it and it really helps my mum.” – Maria 

Sadly, 22% of Queenslanders experiencing hunger are children. 

With your help, we can help make sure families like Maria’s do not go hungry. Thank you for making a difference.  

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