FareShare onboards new charity partners

When FareShare began its major, yearlong Abbotsford kitchen redevelopment back in March last year, we knew it wouldn’t be easy.

But we were united by a singular goal: to enable our chefs and volunteers to cook more free, nutritious meals for people who need them most. Up to 500,000 a year more in fact.

Pictured at Uniting Footscray (l-r) Mary Sobredo, a young volunteer and George.

Uniting Footscray’s broad catchment area covers much of Maribyrnong and Brimbank, some of the lower socio-economic areas of Melbourne. They support people experiencing homelessness, rough sleepers, low-income families, refugees and asylum seekers, and people escaping domestic violence.

Mary Sobredo runs a vibrant team. “Culture and diversity are very important. We have a real family culture here.”

Eighty eight year-old George helps run their food bank, and is the poster boy of Uniting (even appearing on national ads for them in the past). “I’ve been volunteering here for 25 years. I was still working when I started. Been doing it ever since.”

George remembers FareShare all the way back to our South Melbourne origins and our tiny Thompson Street kitchen days. He also fondly remembers our meals.

“They’re good meals, beautiful in fact! We’re doing okay with other stuff here, but we’re short of meals. We get a lot of homeless people through, and I know that they’ll love these meals. They’ll go down a treat

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Mary agrees: “FareShare meals will have a lot of impact on our community. Because a lot of people we get through may not be able to cook, they may not have an appliance or the means to, so these meals will just fly out the door!” 

Sadly though, our kitchen is still not able to run at full capacity. We need more chefs and drivers to ramp up our production even more, as well as a substation to fully power our kitchen.

Not to mention, our charity partner waitlist is still burgeoning. Times are tough. Our current charity partners are reporting increased demand coupled with less food being provided by other organisations. This is further exacerbating our waitlist. 

With your support this Winter Appeal, we can provide more of our free, nutritious meals to more charities in our local community, including kindergartens, hospital wards, and so many others…

More specifically, your support can help us begin supporting these shortlisted charities:

  • Maddie Riewoldt’s Vision – assisting some of their Bone Marrow Failure Syndrome patients, including retirees, isolated people living alone, and families of patients experiencing financial hardship.
  • Kindergartens – we have a handful of kindergartens on our waitlist. Teachers at these early education centres are having to pay for fruit and snacks themselves, such is the level of food insecurity among their wee cherubs. Our meals can help families feed their children and themselves.
  • Exciting pilot program with the City of Melbourne – this local council is keen to trial a community pantry model at the Kathleen Symes Library. This could be a real gamechanger for people doing it tough in our inner city.

People at Uniting Footscray will now be able to access free, nutritious FareShare meals like this salmon and spinach meal.
People at Uniting Footscray will now be able to access free, nutritious FareShare meals like this salmon and spinach meal.

With your support this Winter Appeal, we can provide more of our free, nutritious meals to more charities in our local community, including kindergartens, hospital wards, and so many others…

More specifically, your support can help us begin supporting these shortlisted charities:

  • Maddie Riewoldt’s Vision – assisting some of their Bone Marrow Failure Syndrome patients, including retirees, isolated people living alone, and families of patients experiencing financial hardship.
  • Kindergartens – we have a handful of kindergartens on our waitlist. Teachers at these early education centres are having to pay for fruit and snacks themselves, such is the level of food insecurity among their wee cherubs. Our meals can help families feed their children and themselves.
  • Exciting pilot program with the City of Melbourne – this local council is keen to trial a community pantry model at the Kathleen Symes Library. This could be a real gamechanger for people doing it tough in our inner city.

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