Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Bendigo Food Share has been running a campaign throughout the month of March. Their goal is to raise funds to cover their operational costs for the next 12 months. Bendigo Foodshare is effectively a wholesaler. They provide the food to our local emergency food relief agencies, not just in Bendigo but throughout Victoria. They run on the smell of an oily rag. They do not qualify for government funding, because they do not deal directly with people in need. They supply to the agencies to ensure that they have the food and the goods that people who are in need can receive.

On the long weekend we held a successful tin rattle over two days and collectively raised just under $2,500. A big shout-out to all the people in Bendigo who donated their loose change towards Bendigo Foodshare. We also need to acknowledge our IGAs who hosted a number of barbecue fundraisers out the front of their stores over the weekend. A number of local businesses have also come on board and made donations towards Bendigo Foodshare to help ensure that they can keep their doors open and the trucks running. Businesses like Bendigo Toyota, McKern Steel; even our local radio and local papers have got behind the cause to promote what Bendigo Foodshare is doing for our community.

We are in a bit of a crisis when it comes to people in need in our community. Some of our food relief agencies have reported, in the last 12 months, a 40 per cent increase in people who are seeking help. Their pay cheques just do not stretch as far. They are not earning as much as they used to. Their hours are becoming less. The government cuts in emergency relief have hurt our food relief agencies. The agencies are relying more and more on organisations like Bendigo Foodshare to deliver goods so that they can help those who are most in need. The goal for March is to raise enough money to be able to provide one million meals for the next 12 months, through community meals, through food in our school programs, through emergency hampers, through individual support.

Congratulations to everybody in Bendigo, in central Victoria, who is getting behind Bendigo Foodshare. Congratulations to Ray, the supervisor at the site, who works part-time but does a full-time job in making sure that people in our part of the world do not go hungry and are supported. Congratulations Foodshare, and I encourage everybody to get behind them this month.