Warrnambool and District Food Share to work with struggling restaurants and cafes

The package, announced on Monday, is available to communities disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Warrnambool and District Food Share executive officer Dedy Friebe said the funding would help meet the huge demand it was seeing across the region.

Mr Friebe has to apply for the funding but said he was confident it would be approved. "This has come about because Food Share has advised the minister this is what's needed at this time and the government has immediately responded (with funding) to address regional issues in food support."

He said the funding would allow new partnerships between food relief organisations such as Food Share, to help both vulnerable people and businesses who'd lost income.

"We're going to hook up with a local restaurant for a quotation to be able to supply frozen dinners to be cooked and distributed locally through our network to regional towns," Mr Friebe said.

A $4.5 million boost to community food relief organisations across the state would be used locally to purchase bulk staple foods.

Mr Friebe said the items would be distributed to up to six regional agencies in Warrnambool, Portland and Hamilton to pass onto their most vulnerable.

He said the need for food hampers had increased from 100 a week to 150 per week since the start of this year, a demand the organisation had not previously experienced.

He said the demand was a combination of the pandemic, as well as Warrnambool and District Food Share's expansion to a regional hub, which now serviced the south-west's five local government areas.

"The whole thing about us and the pandemic is the uncertainty," Mr Friebe said. "We can't predict things. You can't look at previous years. It's a new journey for everybody and all we can do is prepare, make sure we've got plenty of food and we can react and adapt to the situations as they arise."

He said community dynamics had changed in the past year everywhere you looked.

"It's about job security and the amount of part-time work available. It's about people's mortgages and their capacity to pay, government assistance and withdrawal of government assistance.

"What's particularly pleasing about this (funding) is it's an immediate response by the government to an immediate need created by this extra lockdown. They're very aware now that they don't want families doing it tougher than they have to, particularly if they're in a position to help."

He said food items were now going as far as Coleraine, Dunkeld, and Merino to towns, some of which were quite isolated, and didn't have family support infrastructure.

"We previously serviced 10 towns a month," Mr Friebe said. "Now there's 23 a month that receive food from us. Through tracking and work with shire councils we're identifying areas where we can help. That's part of our growth too.

"It's a deliberate expansion that aims to bridge the gaps of vulnerability out in the community."

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