Foodbank launches 365-days-a-year campaign

The demand for the Peel Foodbanks’ services has increased by an unprecedented 24 per cent at the start of 2017, compared to last year.

“It’s been an extremely busy start to the year, there’s been a huge increase in the number of people walking through our doors,” Mrs Reynolds said.

“Our shelves are incredibly bare. We currently have a very high-need, high-turnover situation. As soon as we put food on the shelves, it disappears.

“We have 150 people a day coming through our doors and 1000 kilograms of food walking out, that’s the equivalent of 2000 meals. And some days, the figure can be as high as 4000 meals.”

Mrs Reynolds said people from all walks of life were seeking food relief on a regular basis.

“We’ve got people who are enduring long-term financial hardship, the newly unemployed, and a high number of seniors who are stressing out about how to make ends meet,” she said.

“There’s also the homeless and those people struggling to just pay the bills that keep on coming in.”

Given the unprecedented demand, Foodbank WA has launched its 365-days-a-year awareness campaign. 

“We believe that giving doesn’t have to end at Christmas,” Mrs Reynolds said.

“The growing, constant demand means we need donations of food and money all-year round, so that we can provide the volume and variety of food needed to provide a well-balanced meal for those people most in need.

“We’d love local sporting clubs, schools and workplaces to hold a food drive. We can provide the food bins and the signage to help promote the event and no donation is too small. We had someone who came in with excess grapes from their harvest, someone’s surplus is a bonus for us.”

Mrs Reynolds said there was always demand for fresh food, canned goods, dairy products like cheese and butter and simple pantry staples like breakfast cereal, rice and pasta.

To organise a food drive or for more information on what can be done to help, call Foodbank on 9581 9200.