Executive officer Dedy Friebe said donations from local people allowed the service to add a bag of Christmas goodies to about 100 hampers sent out to families in the lead up to Christmas last year.

“This year we want to send out 150 bags of Christmas goods with hampers,” Mr Friebe said.

The 150 bags would add up to about one tonne of Chistmas goods, he said.

Mr Friebe said demand for Food Share’s services was continuing to grow and it was presently providing food to about 1000 people, or about 200 families, a month.

It was each month sending out about 400 food hampers, each of which included about three boxes of dry and fresh food, he said.

That was about 100 boxes, or about half a tonne of food, each day.

The hampers provided enough food for a family for three to four days, Mr Friebe said.

People can donate Christmas goods at Food Share’s centre in Harrington Road, local supermarkets, Ceebeks Business Solutions, Silvan Ridge Financial Solutions, Callaghans Motors, People’s Choice Credit Union at Gateway Plaza or South West TAFE.

The bulk of the groceries in the hampers are provided by Food Bank in Melbourne and much of the fresh food comes from local supermarkets.

Food Share does not provide the food hampers directly to people but through a raft of community service organisations.

Apart from the hampers, Food Share also provides fresh fruit to local schools to distribute to children.

Mr Friebe paid tribute to the volunteers who put together the food hampers.

He was chuffed their contribution was recently recognised with an Australian Government National Volunteers Award, presented by Member for Wannon Dan Tehan in Maryborough earlier this month.

Mr Friebe said Food Share had about 20 volunteers who included those from five Warrnambool businesses and organisations who paid them to work at Food Share.

The award was one of several handed out by Mr Tehan to individuals and groups within the Wannon electorate recognising their volunteer contribution.