FareShare meals are distributed to hundreds of frontline charities supporting people in crisis.
If one person can sum up the misery of 2020, it’s Nick. He is one of tens of thousands of people who received FareShare meals for the first time this year after losing his work, his mother and an enormous amount of weight during COVID. “Never in my wildest
FareShare chef Thea Whitaker moved to Melbourne in 2019 after meeting Australian partner Rama in the African jungle on the set of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of here! Hailing from Cape Town, she was living in a tent and cooking meals for 400 crew from a 24-hour outdoor
The people our chefs and volunteers cook for are always front of mind when we prepare our nutritious meals. Receiving a review from a meal recipient is a gift. Ryan, a former chef, shared his feedback after picking up a FareShare meal during COVID. Here’s what he thought: I
Nothing is more critical to keeping up with demand for FareShare meals than our ovens. Working 16 hours a day, six days a week, each oven can cook 1,800 meals a day. We desperately need to raise $100,000 to replace two. Our ageing ovens are now so worn out they
Our meals are distributed to large and small charities and community groups who help people in need of nutritious food.
These charities include soup vans, homeless shelters, women’s refuges, support groups for single parents, RSLs and school breakfast programs in disadvantaged areas. They also include large organiations such as The Salvation Army, St Vincent de Paul and the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. FareShare meals are provided to people affected by natural disaster such as bushfires and floods, and to groups such as visa holders and international students who lost work during the COVID pandemic.
Some charities serve our meals directly, such as Vinnies’ Soup Vans which share our soup. Others pack them in food parcels for vulnerable people to take away or operate community pantries.
Once cooked in our kitchen, our meals are frozen and delivered within a couple of days. We only provide meals via our charity partners and are unable to hand out meals to families and individuals directly. Many of our meals in Victoria are distributed by SecondBite and Foodbank, while Foodbank is our main distribution partner in Queensland, Meals cooked in our Abbotsford kitchen are also being distributed to New South Wales and South Australia thanks to collaboration with SecondBite.
We provide all our meals free of charge.
The Father Bob Maguire Foundation supports some of the most disadvantaged people in Melbourne including increasing numbers facing homelessness and isolation.
All Father Bob’s meals are served in parks and open spaces were diners can enjoy their food in a sociable environment. The charity’s food van service is more like a picnic than a soup van. Volunteers serve food from tables and greet diners who can choose from an array of options.
“We believe that if you feed people nutritious food, they will feel better physically, psychologically and emotionally” says Father Bob whose charity hands out food to 600 people per week.
Every night across Melbourne St Vincent de Paul Society’s Soup Vans serve FareShare soup to marginalised people struggling to access nutritious food.
As the Vinnies Soup Vans tour boarding and rooming houses, commission homes and public sites where rough sleepers gather, people hold out pots, bowls, mugs and paper cups for healthy, comforting soup.
Each week, FareShare cooks 110 litres of soup for Vinnies Footscray and has stepped up production to provide another 450 litres to the Fitzroy Soup Van.
For some isolated people, the Soup Van service may offer the only human interaction of the week.
For many people the words ‘hunger’ and ‘malnutrition’ conjure up images of starvation in Horn of Africa countries and developing nations in Asia. Most Australians are unaware that hunger and malnutrition also exist much closer to home – and are shocked by the extent of hunger in the lucky country.
According to the Foodbank Hunger Report 2019, around five million Australians experienced food insecurity over the previous 12 months – a shocking one in five people. Perhaps saddest of all, 22 per cent of them were children.
Worryingly, the trends aren’t good with a 22 per cent increase in the number of people seeking food relief.
Some of the most common reasons people skip meals or are unable to buy food include having limited income to meet the increasing cost of living, bill shock, housing affordability, and the expense of staple food items.
Australia’s economic statistics look impressive next to many other countries, but they fail to convey that too many in our society are struggling. Adults are skipping meals, children are going to school without breakfast or lunch, and many families cannot afford healthy food.
People going hungry come from all walks of life.
FareShare supports hundreds of charities feeding families and individuals in dire need. They include:
• Single parent or low-income families
• People experiencing homelessness or living in transient and crisis accommodation
• Mothers and children fleeing domestic violence
• Refugees and asylum seekers
• A family where a parent has lost work
• Indigenous Australians
• Children with no food at home who are going to school without breakfast or lunch
• People in poor health or battling addiction
• Isolated elderly people
• People with mental health issues or physical disabilities
• Students and young people living independently and struggling to make ends meet.
Being able to access nutritious food makes a huge difference to people who would otherwise go without. They are no longer distracted by hunger, can focus on their education or work, benefit from improved physical and mental health, and are more socially engaged.