New campaign helping the hungry

While doing their weekly supermarket shop in July, Victorian residents can help the more than 133,700 people across the state who receive hunger relief each month.
Foodbank’s biggest annual public food appeal will help provide meals for the one in six people who are in crisis at some point each year. An estimated 140,400 people across Victoria seek assistance for food relief each month, however to meet this need, an additional 55,239 meals are still required above what is currently being provided.
A third of Australians receiving food relief are children and it is estimated that around one in five children experience going to school or bed hungry.
The Foodbank ‘Shop & Share’ campaign matches donations of products from some of Australia’s top brands with customer purchases at Woolworths, during the month of July. Local customers can help support the campaign, triggering one-for-one donation each time they purchase a participating brand’s product at Woolworths stores in Victoria.
In 2016, the campaign raised 13 million meals for Australians in need and donations this year are anticipated to be the equivalent of filling around 3,500 shopping trollies full of food.
Foodbank Australia’s CEO Brianna Casey, said, “Shop & Share provides us with an opportunity to remind Australians about the ongoing issue of hunger which affects so many families, individuals and children,  at the same time as securing additional food to assist them.”
“We’ve been overwhelmed by the support from the brands participating in the campaign and now we’re relying on local Victorian shoppers for their support to help us provide crucial food relief,” she said.
Andrew Hall General Manager of Operations for Woolworths in Victoria said, “We’re proud once again to be supporting Foodbank’s annual campaign. All customers need to do to play their part is purchase one of the many participating products across our stores when they shop with us in July and know that by supporting the brands that support Foodbank, they will be helping families in need across the region.”
Participating brands include the Woolworths food range, Ardmona, Devondale, John West, Chicken Tonight, Old El Paso, Vetta, McCain, Helga’s, SunRice, SPC, Primo, Mount Franklin, Continental and Sanitarium.
Foodbank is a non-profit organisation which acts as a pantry to the charities and community groups who feed the hungry. It is a conduit between the food industry’s surplus food and the welfare sector’s need.