Free, fresh food – that’s what’s making these students smile!

Picture this. You’ve just gotten home to cook yourself a filling meal for dinner… only you’re living off a Uni student’s budget. What kind of ingredients spring to mind?

If 2-minute noodles and baked beans are what popped into your head, you’d be spot on. That’s the reality international students are facing across Australia, according to a recent study from Allianz Partners, as part of their State of Student Healthcare Report.

International students contribute a whopping $34 billion into our economy each year, and in return? The current cost of living crisis has meant that more than a third of international students in Australia can’t afford fresh fruit and veggies in their weekly shop.

Luckily, not all those students have to go hungry thanks to Allianz Partners, who have partnered with Foodbank Australia to help supply the fresh food and pantry staples students so urgently need.

Our first international student food market took place this July, with more markets to follow across Uni campuses throughout Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, offering students attending the markets the opportunity to “shop” for free fruit, veggies and pantry essentials.

Thanks to our friends at Allianz Partners, these markets have helped us fill the fridges and pantries of so many international students who would otherwise be going without, right across the country – meaning no more pot noodle dinners in these student’s futures, as far as the eye can see!

The new centres of our universe.

Km’s away from Melbourne, two new Foodbank ‘satellites’ are sending out fresh, healthy, seasonal food…

You probably heard the cheers all through regional Victoria, as we officially opened our Community Food Centres in both Ballarat and Morwell.

Serving as a hub, or should we say ‘hug’, for local regional communities built in partnership with Vic Government.

With your support, these centres mean that fresh, chilled and frozen food no longer needs to be trucked in from Foodbank’s Yarraville warehouse, so local charities can directly access the healthy, nutritious food they need. Exciting times ahead…

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Dippity doo da – what a recipe!

We show our love and gratitude through food, so here’s a tasty little treat from us to you with thanks…

Longer days, birds chirping, flowers blooming, and green everywhere we look. Inspiring, right?

Enjoy this fresh Spring recipe from our Cooking Class team that is green, light and kindergarten level easy!

Spring Pea Dip

Serves – 4
Prep Time – 15 mins

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cups frozen peas
• 2 avocados
• lemon, juiced
• 200g feta
• 1 cup mint
• 1/3 cup dill

Method

1. Cover the frozen peas with boiling water and allow them to warm up. Then strain.

2. In a food processor, add the peas, avocado, mint, dill, feta and lemon juice. Pulse until smooth.

3. Serve with carrot sticks or on crusty bread with a sprinkle of sumac, and black pepper. Or however takes your fancy!

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Yes, fast food can be healthy.

​​​​​This may come as a surprise, but here at Foodbank Vic there’s a kind of ‘fast food’ we’re happy to embrace…

Did you know that Foodbank Victoria dates all the way back to the 1930s? Boy, have we come a long way since then! Did we ever deliver food in Flintstone cars? No, we’re not quite that old… but we have made some big improvements along the way.

Until recently, our fresh fruit and veggie deliveries rolled up to our warehouse doors in bins. Our volunteers would sort produce out of those bins into smaller boxes for distribution. Now, we have a brand-new packing line that makes this process not x1, not x2, but X9 TIMES FASTER.

A massive thank you to the Phil Taylor Foundation for donating this machine and helping us get more food out to where it needs to be!

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Some pretty spectacular spatulas.

What’s giving red velvet cupcake AND red-carpet vibes? Only our brand-new batch of celebrity spatulas…

Last year, we gave celebrities the challenge of designing their very own spatulas to raise funds for Foodbank. Now, it’s officially time for round two… and guess who’s stepped up to the plate this year?

Pick up a piece of art to keep in your kitchen at home, with designs created by Foodbank ambassadors Hamish Blake and Chrissie Swan, plus Sophie Monk, Adam Liaw, Glenn Robbins, and legendary Herald Sun cartoonist Mark Knight.

Available from October exclusively through Minimax (not long to wait now!)

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Thanks Victoria – you brought all the food!

​​Your response to our Emergency Food Drive knocked our socks off (not our steel capped boots tho)…

We put the call out for help, and you sure did answer   At our Emergency Food Drive on August 10-11, we saw first-hand that gritty ‘roll up your sleeves and we’ll make this happen’ attitude that is pretty much part of Victoria’s DNA.

All weekend long, our community rocked up to our Yarraville Warehouse with smiles, beautiful words of encouragement and best of all, arms and boots full of food.

With our volunteers cheering them on like a finals crowd at the ‘G, there were cars of all kinds, scooters and Harleys, families with their kids, a gleaming convoy of vintage Thunderbirds and not one but TWO big red CFA trucks. Hugs were exchanged, and friendships forged as our oversized bins began to fill with 100’s and 100’s of cans, packets and boxes of the items we needed to help feed Victorians.

And, ever since that weekend, the tonnes of food you brought to our giant roller doors have been heading straight back out of our warehouse and onto the tables of those who need it most.

You know that line from David Bowie, ‘We can be heroes – just for one day’? Well, you were…except it was TWO days and the impact of your generosity is going to last for much longer than that.

Couldn’t get there yourself? You can still be part of our Virtual Food Drive so head over there and fill up a bag, basket or trolley to help feed more Victorians.

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Heard about Food Fight? The fundraiser taking place across Victoria, asking schools and students to put their hands up to fundraise for Foodbank?

Yep, you heard that right. In exchange for an afternoon of flinging fake food and having buckets full of fun, students can raise much-needed funds for Foodbank.

Do you know a school that would be up for piffing stuff to help feed people? Well, tell them to sign up?

Huge thanks to those 100 schools who’ve already raised 1 million meals – Legends.

You’re never too young to be crowned AWESOME!

Meet one of the youngest members of our Nourish Collective – Elena, who is proof that you can do amazing things for your community at any age.

At just 10 years old, Elena decided to sign herself up to our regular giving program (a community we like to call our Nourish Collective), with her parent’s approval, of course, and now generously donates some of her savings each month to help the 65,000 people we’re feeding each and every day.

And she’s even inspired her younger sisters to do the same!

“I love donating to Foodbank knowing it helps families have food” she said.

And we love Elena too.

Our Nourish Collective are nothing short of amazing. Lately, we’ve been relying on their help. More than ever before.

Just like the prices rising on your local supermarket shelves, it’s becoming more and more expensive to source the food we need. All while demand continues to grow and grow. Which is why we need donations that we can count on, each and every month. Providing the funds we need to nourish the people who need our help now.

Pretty awesome generosity, right? We think so too.

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Paris may have the Mona Lisa. But we have Rebekah

You don’t need to be an art lover to appreciate this smile and the story behind it…

You helped us, help Rebekah. She’s the heartbeat of her growing family; always happy to stop and have a friendly chat and share her grandmother’s deliciously rustic recipes.

The epitome of so many mums we meet, all trying to make miracles happen when hope is scarce.

With four children to feed and take care of, the youngest just six months old, to say she has her hands full is, well, an understatement.

Things are a little easier now that Rebekah can access a regular and reliable source of fresh, healthy food thanks to the incredible support of Victorians like YOU through our Winter Appeal.

We’re so glad you can help us be there for all the ‘Rebekah’s. Without them, our communities can’t thrive.

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