Community spirit – a beacon of hope in Gippsland’s bushfire affected communities

“It was like a hailstorm of embers, you couldn’t even see. And when the embers finished falling, everything was on fire.”

Meet Brian and Julie, a Sarsfield couple we caught up with at ADRA Bairnsdale’s bushfire recovery centre. ADRA’s just one of our 12 partners in the bushfire impacted regions, helping distribute Foodbank’s emergency food relief hampers to communities in need.

As the fires peaked on the hills above their property, Brian made the difficult choice to stay and fight for his home. As the embers gathered speed and invaded his property, Brian battled the blaze all through the night, making heartbreaking choices about what to save and what to let burn. He lost his treasured garden, a tractor, his front staircase and there was severe damage to an exterior retainer wall – but he feels lucky that his home still stands.

“There’s no longer many trees around the place. All you can see is all the houses that have gone. It’s a bit confronting,” said Brian.

For a small town of 652 residents, more than 130 Sarsfield residents have been displaced by the recent fires. The fires impacted more than 70 percent of homes – 66 were lost.

To help make things a little easier, Brian and Julie have been accessing emergency food and water relief through ADRA Bairnsdale as they join their neighbours on the long journey to recovery.

“The food relief really helps to take a load off your mind. We are still in the process of rebuilding the front of our home and it takes time.”

“The fight isn’t over, it’s going to take at least a year for the community of Sarsfield to recover,” Brian continued.

Despite the significant and devasting loss, the community spirit, resilience and human kindness in the region is sincerely heart-warming.

Beyond the local charities and relief and recovery centres, the Sarsfield Recreation Reserve has been hosting weekly shared meals to help bring the community together. Each week a different organisation and group helps to cater the event with the community bonding over the different cuisines and their shared experiences.

The Nowa Nowa Men’s Choir has also been lifting spirits through song and raising funds to invest back into the nearby communities.

To try and make things easier for Gippsland communities, Foodbank Victoria joined the Sarsfield Community for a twilight pop-up market, bringing in our Farms to Families truck loaded with free fresh fruit and vegetables to the community.

In addition to stocking local pantries, some of the produce purchased with bushfire funds is making its way to farm kitchens to help feed the volunteer tradies who’ve travelled great distances to help rebuild fences, clear the land, and get farming communities back on their feet.

We recently visited ADRA Bairnsdale to make sure they had additional water, food and supplies to continue helping their community through recovery. Merilyn, the Manager at ADRA Barinsdale left a message of thanks for all of your support.

View a timeline of our bushfire response.

School Spotlight: Tarneit P-9 College

Tarneit P-9 College, in Werribee, enrols over 1,700 students and, for more than three years, School Breakfast Club has been an important start to the day. Around 80 students are served breakfast, four days a week.

We chatted to Billie Voican, the school’s Food Tech assistant, who organises their Breakfast Club, to find out how the program is going. Billie told us that the school introduced lunches when they became available in Term 3 last year. They provide students with the tuna, rice and vegetable lunch bowls, apples, fruit cups and milk. This year they’re happy to explore the extra options on the menu.

Billie said “Being a mum of three, it was initially quite confronting for me to realise how many students would go hungry if we didn’t have a Breakfast Club – including the lunches that are now provided.  There is a big need for the supply of food. So, we are very glad to be able to rely on Foodbank Victoria to meet that need. However, beyond the food, the other major benefit of the Program is a social one.

“Teachers and students and, our older and younger grades come together to enjoy breakfasts and also eat lunch together.  Everyone is welcome to attend breakfasts and, the lunches are distributed to those who need them.

“We encourage students to go to their teacher if they don’t have lunch. The teacher will then write a note which is handed to me, so I know who needs lunch.

“I have noticed that there is often a link between a student’s behavioural problems and being hungry.  Offering lunch as well as breakfast has made all the difference to those students.

“We serve around 10 lunches a day. Our teachers understand that some students may never bring lunch from home, and we are happy to be able to ensure that no one goes hungry at breakfast or lunch time, because we can rely on the program.”

Read more School Breakfast Club stories

New partnership helps Foodbank look after others

Here at Foodbank Victoria, we are proud to announce that Emma & Tom’s has joined the fight against hunger! To celebrate the launch of their new Look After Others water,  Emma and Tom’s will offer a percentage of every bottle sold in the new range to Foodbank Victoria.

Emma Welsh, co-founder of Emma & Tom’s, visited our Yarraville warehouse to showcase the new Look After Yourself bottle design which features the Foodbank logo.

“We are excited to launch a product that is dedicated to supporting the important work by Foodbank Victoria,’ said Welsh.

“We have always believed that part of being in business is to give back to our community. With stockists Australia wide, we are inspiring our dedicated customers to help raise awareness and join the fight against hunger on a national scale,” Welsh continued.

Dave McNamara, CEO of Foodbank Victoria, showed Welsh around the Yarraville warehouse, stating:

“We’re thrilled to have Emma & Tom’s on board to help support our food relief efforts and see this as a great alignment of the values underpinning both our organisations.”

“Our research shows the demand for food relief is increasing. We’re already helping about 140,000 Victorians every month who can’t put food on the table, but there are another 8,000 potentially missing out because we need more resources to reach them.

This partnership will allow Foodbank Victoria to close that gap and provide more Victorians access to healthy food,” he continued.

Access to nutritionally rich food and drinks is also at the core of Emma & Tom’s business philosophy. Since establishing in 2004, the organisation has made it a priority to regularly donate products to local and national food charities.

The new Emma & Toms Look After Others water will be available in Australian supermarket shelves and stockists soon. Don’t forget to keep an eye on our Facebook page as we reveal the new design.

Responding to Victoria’s bushfire crisis

On December 31 2019, Foodbank Victoria was activated as the State Government’s official emergency food and water relief organisation under the Emergency Relief and Recovery Plan. With the support and generosity of our friends, partners and the wider community, we responded – distributing emergency food, water and supplies to fire-affected communities in East Gippsland. Here is a timeline of our response.

The first emergency relief consisting of 256 food hampers, water and snacks were sent to Bairnsdale Racecourse Recovery Centre by truck.

650 food hampers, snacks and 10 pallets of water were delivered via rig tender ‘Far Senator’ to Mallacoota as all roads were cut.

Following a social media post detailing our first response, we received an influx of generous offers from the community who were desperate to help. For the first time in history, we opened our doors to accept donations from the general public. Over 200 cars showed up at our warehouse to donate food, water and supplies.

Our team of 20 staff and volunteers quickly grew to 100 people as we welcomed more than 900 drive-through donations. Our volunteers packed 1,050 hampers of essential items including groceries, toiletries and ‘grab n go’ meals. Six Army trucks delivered 48 pallets of water and 1,440 hampers to East Sale for road and air distribution into remote communities.

Today marked our third-day accepting donations from the general public, who flocked to our warehouse in the thousands eager to help those in need. More than 1,300 cars, trucks, trailers, horse floats and wheelbarrows lined up at our doors to donate much-needed food and supplies, while 130 volunteers continued to greet visitors, sort donations and pack hampers.

More than 550 vehicles stopped by our warehouse – luckily we’d enlisted the help of traffic management. 45 staff and 90 volunteers were all hands on deck, continuing to sort and pack emergency hampers. The community response was incredible.

Two truckloads of supplies including 960 hampers and six pallets of water made their way to Bairnsdale Airport to be airlifted into isolated regions with the help of the Australian Army. US superstar Lizzo made a special visit, helping to pack hampers and thank our volunteers for their hard work. A further 128 vehicles stopped by our warehouse with more food, water and essential items.

Over the next three days, more than 460 vehicles visited our warehouse to drop off donations, before our warehouse would close to the general public on Sunday 12 January, 5pm. As our team continued to sort and pack hampers, we called upon the community to support our efforts financially, with every $1 donation allowing us to provide close to $7 worth of food to those impacted by the bushfires.

Leader of the Australian Labor Party, Anthony Albanese, kindly visited our warehouse to thank our volunteers and learn more about our Victorian operations.

We joined Cold Chisel at Mount Duneeed Estate for their 2020 Blood Moon Tour. The legendary rockers helped to raise funds for Foodbank and we were there in our purple aprons collecting donations for our disaster relief work. In the warehouse, our volunteers packed the 4,500th hamper since our first day of opening to the public.

More than 3,000 kilograms of mixed groceries were shipped to the Adventist Development Relief Agency in Bairnsdale and a further 565 kilograms of food relief was delivered to Bairnsdale Neighbourhood House. Our volunteers – with a little help from Gordon Ramsay – continued to pack and sort donated goods.

Her Excellency the Honourable Linda Dessau AC, Governor of Victoria, and Mr Anthony Howard AM QC spent time meeting staff and volunteers and thanking them for their efforts during our bushfire food relief response.

20 more pallets of food went by truck to Bairnsdale, with eight of these pallets making their way to Mallacoota. In the warehouse, emergency relief hamper packing continued.

To this date, more than 3,300 mixed grocery hampers, 138 pallets of water, three pallets of muesli bars and four pallets of fruit cups have been delivered to disaster recovery centres and communities in East Gippsland and beyond, with thousands more packed and ready for distribution.

The community response has been incredible and our volunteers are working hard to sort through donations and pack these into hampers. But there is still a long road to recovery. That’s why we’re asking for financial support to keep food and supplies flowing. A $1 donation allows us to provide 2 meals.

There is still a long road to recovery as affected communities begin to heal, recover and rebuild – and we will be there with them, every step of the way. Read some inspiring and heart-warming tales of recovery from the communities of East Gippsland.

US superstar Lizzo drops by to thank Foodbank Victoria bushfire food relief volunteers

The US superstar dropped by to show her support to the Foodbank Victoria volunteers who have been collecting, sorting and packing food hampers and water supplies for bushfire affected communities in Victoria.

Eager to assist the many Victorians who had been affected by the bushfires, Lizzo joined the packing line, helping to pack essential items into emergency relief hampers.

The singer hugged and chatted with some of the 400 volunteers who’ve been working in shifts since last week to help sort and pack the massive amount of food donations received from generous Victorians at our Yarraville warehouse.

If you’d like to join Lizzo in supporting the bushfire crisis, you can click the link here.

Foodbank bushfire appeal calls for funds, food and groceries

Thursday 9 January 2020 – Australia’s leading hunger relief organisation, Foodbank, is playing a crucial role in the current unprecedented bushfire crisis and has the latest urgent request – Foodbank is still accepting donations from the public in all states around the country, but it’s preference is funds to be donated at www.foodbank.org.au.

Foodbank warehouses are open in every capital city for the general public to drop off donations of much-needed food and groceries.

Most wanted items:

  • Donated funds to www.foodbank.org.au
  • UHT Milk
  • Bottled water
  • Breakfast cereals
  • Good quality tinned foods and meals (with ring pulls)
  • Pasta, rice and noodles
  • Grab-and-go foods like muesli bars
  • Pet food
  • Baby products – formula, nappies, pureed food in jars / pouches

 

With more than one in five Australians experiencing food poverty at some point in the last 12 months[1], Foodbank Australia is currently providing food and grocery relief to 815,000 Australians every month, on top of additional support to communities currently experiencing natural disasters.

 

See www.foodbank.org.au/bushfire-emergency for locations and opening hours.

 

-Ends-

Media enquiries

Rebecca Collins
Foodbank Australia
M +61 409 786 132
E Rebecca@foodbank.org.au

[1] Foodbank Hunger Report 2019

FOODBANK SA PRIMARY FOOD RELIEF CHARITY FOR SA BUSH FIRES

Foodbank SA has been appointed as the primary organisation to support food relief efforts for recent bush fires in South Australia. Foodbank SA have been authorised to coordinate all activities related to food relief requirements including the receiving of food donations and distribution of food relief to those areas impacted by the devastating bush fires across the state. These zones include Kangaroo Island and the Adelaide Hills region.

 

Foodbank SA CEO Greg Pattinson said Foodbank would co-ordinate the food relief effort for the bush fires, and urged South Australians not to drop off food at the Emergency Relief Centres or any other locations but to take it to Foodbank allocated locations across the state.

“Foodbank’s role is to get the right type and amount of food, to the right people at the right time. We have seen amazing support and call outs by well-meaning members of the community but we need to ensure there is a coordinated approach. I can’t stress enough that a managed approach via Foodbank will streamline delivery to the centres on the ground, reduce wasted effort and ensure those in need are truly supported.” Mr Pattinson said.

“For many South Australians, they are wanting to know how they can support those impacted. If the community are wanting to donate food, toiletries and other essentials, they can deliver these donations to Foodbank SA, 377 Cross Road Edwardstown or one of our several Food Hubs across the state.

These include:

Details here:

Foodbank SA Warehouse, 377 Cross Road Edwardstown. Open between 9am to 4pm (excluding weekends and public holidays).

Foodbank Food Hub Bowden, 77 Gibson Street, Bowden. Open between 9am to 4pm (excluding weekends and public holidays).

Foodbank Food Hub Elizabeth, 91-93 Elizabeth Way, Elizabeth. Open between 9:30am to 2:30pm (excluding weekends and public holidays).

Foodbank Food Hub Christies Beach, 59-61 Beach Road, Christies Beach. Open between (9am to 4pm) (excluding weekends and public holidays).

Foodbank volunteers have been working behind the scenes preparing food relief and a dedicated volunteer team are already in place sorting and distributing food relief requirements.

State Manager Emergency Functional Relief Support Group Paul Reardon said it was important for people to drop food donations at the right place.

​“We know the South Australian community is extremely generous when it comes to helping communities affected by bushfires,” Mr Reardon said.

“It is important that those well-meaning in the community do not head into fire zones, or to Emergency Relief Centres to make a donation. It is recommended that these food donations are made at Foodbank to allow a managed food relief effort.  Foodbank can then store and coordinate the distribution as and when needed on the ground.”

 

FOODBANK VICTORIA TO DELIVER FOOD HAMPERS AND DRINKING WATER TO EAST GIPPSLAND

1 January 2020

A truck full of food and drinking water will head to East Gippsland from Melbourne today, with Foodbank Victoria sending the supplies in to help firefighters and local communities caught up in the bushfire emergency.

The food supplies are part of Foodbank Victoria’s disaster relief support to Emergency Management Victoria and will go to the recovery centre at Bairnsdale Race Course for distribution.

Foodbank Victoria CEO Dave McNamara says “Our hearts go out to the incredible firefighters, first responders and the displaced communities in East Gippsland. We can only imagine what they’re going through and hope the food and water supplies provide some comfort and support during an horrific start to the new year.

“This first delivery of 650 food hampers and 10 pallets of water should give community members sufficient food for four days and will ship about 1,500 hampers in the coming days.

“We already know we will need to send in about 5,000 food hampers overall to the region, so I’m calling on Melbournians to urgently help us with food or financial donations.

“We really need ‘grab and go’ items like muesli bars and fruit cups, but tinned food, UHT milk, noodles and other ambient – or non-frozen or refrigerated food – is desperately needed.

“If you can’t donate food, we’ll gratefully accept funds – every dollar donated helps us provide about $7 worth of food assistance.”

The first delivery will include essential things like mixed groceries and, specific to first responders fighting the fires, ‘grab and go’ items and water – providing more than 7,000 meals.

“Our ongoing response will be distributed by established relief and recovery centres throughout East Gippsland, including those isolated communities currently only accessible by air or sea.”

This delivery comes as Foodbank Victoria, the state’s oldest and largest food relief organisation, sees 2020 mark 90 years of helping Victorians in times of need.

“Sadly, we’re no stranger to this role. Whether it’s disasters like the current bushfires or the everyday emergencies Victorians find themselves in, we’ve been there to provide food and support for 90 years now.

“From experience, we know the long-term effect of these events impacts more than just the affected communities. Foodbank Victoria will be there to provide ongoing support to the wider Gippsland communities directly, and through our programs like the Farms to Families markets, our charity partners, and our School Breakfast Program.”

Bertochhi Christmas Ham Glaze Recipe

This Christmas, our friends at Bertocchi Smallgoods kindly donated hundreds of hams to help struggling families through the festive season (you may have seen this on the news).

We couldn’t help but ask for their go-to Christmas Ham recipe – so here it is!

INGREDIENTS

 

  • 1 Bertocchi or San Marino whole leg ham, on the bone (about 8-9kg)
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup marmalade
  • 2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • Juice and zest of a large orange
  • Cloves to stud the ham

 

METHOD

 

  • Preheat oven to 170ºC.
  • Line a large baking dish with 2 layers of non-stick baking paper.
  • Place an oven shelf in the lowest position. Remove all other shelves.
  • Use a sharp knife to cut around the shank of the ham, about 10cm from the end. Then run the knife under the rind around edge of ham.
  • Gently lift the rind off in one piece by running your fingers between the rind and the fat.
  • Score the fat in a diamond pattern (45º angle), about 5mm deep.
  • Stud the centres of the diamonds with cloves. Transfer to prepared dish.
  • Combine brown sugar, marmalade, mustard, juice and zest in a saucepan and gently heat until the sugar has dissolved. Continue to cook until reduced slightly.
  • Brush one-third of the glaze over the ham. Bake, brushing with glaze every 15 minutes, for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the ham is golden and cooked.

 

CARVING TIPS

 

  • Place ham skin side up. Then run a small, sharp knife under the rind around the bottom (opposite end to hock) and each side of the ham to about halfway up towards the hock. Peel the rind back.
  • Run the tip of the knife around the bone, on the underside of the ham. Begin to slice on a slight angle down to the bone.
  • Run your knife lengthways along the bone to remove slices. Continue to slice towards the hock.
  • Continue slicing down to the bone, working your way around the ham. When you’ve reached about a third to the way up, you can remove the bone by making a few short cuts at the joint.

 

STORAGE TIPS

 

  • Store in fridge at 4C or below.
  • Leave ham in plastic wrap until ready to use.
  • Discard plastic wrap prior to use.
  • After carving, store remainder of ham in damp ‘ham bag’ which has been lightly moistened with 75-25 water/white vinegar solution.
  • Refresh ‘ham bag’ with solution as above every 2 to 3 days to maximise shelf life.
  • Please ensure that the ham is refrigerated as soon as possible after carving.
  • ENJOY!

Click here to view more Bertocchi recipes.

Vital drought and disaster relief funding sought by leading food relief organisation

Monday 16 December 2019 – Australia’s leading food relief organisation, Foodbank, is seeking crucial investment in drought and natural disaster relief in its submission to the Federal Government ahead of the forthcoming annual budget.

 

As the only dedicated food relief organisation involved in providing emergency relief, at scale, to hard-hit regional communities, Foodbank is being stretched to the limit. This essential work comes on top of providing food and groceries to 815,000 Australians every month as part of its ongoing food relief services via 2,400 charities nationally.

 

Foodbank has identified a number of areas that require urgent Federal Government investment if Foodbank is to be able to answer the call for even more support at the same time when many of its traditional sources of food, including farmers and manufacturers, are themselves suffering from the fallout of the ongoing drought conditions.

 

Foodbank Australia CEO, Brianna Casey, emphasised the urgency of the situation, “We are currently struggling to assist all communities affected in the unprecedented bushfire emergency gripping both New South Wales and Queensland. Given emergency relief is on top of our day to day food relief efforts across the country, in addition to the growing number of drought-affected communities, we’re seriously questioning whether we can sustain this level of intensity for what’s set to be a particularly challenging summer.

 

“Foodbank plays a unique role in emergency response. When the crisis hits, we are able to quickly mobilise with essential supplies to stricken areas. This may be with items such as bottled water, batteries, toilet paper and food that doesn’t require refrigeration and cooking when there is no power in the area. Over time the need may change to ingredients for hot meals in evacuation centres, and ultimately to hampers of key staples and household cleaning products for people returning to their homes.

 

“Foodbank is playing an essential role in helping Australia make it through these incredibly challenging times. We can only continue to do this with increased support from the Federal Government,” Casey explained.