We did it! With massive community support from Melburnians, schools, business and community groups we hit our rice and pasta target.
Help us buy pasta and tinned tomatoes
While we have raised enough rice, we can never source enough pasta and tinned tomatoes. We will use financial donations to buy pasta and tinned tomatoes at wholesale prices. For $20 we can add pasta to 80 delicious dishes.
Donate pasta and tinned tomatoes
Donating pasta and tinned tomatoes is simple. You can drop off your donations to our Abbotsford kitchen, or for food donations of 100kg or more, we will send one of our food rescue vans to collect from you.
Our kitchen is always hungry for pasta and tinned tomatoes
We’ve been overwhelmed by community support for our biggest ever food drive. With the help of Yarra Trams, we took our campaign to the city to collect 20,000kg of rice and pasta before Christmas.
We always need pasta in particular to meet the growing demand for free, nutritious meals for Victorians doing it tough. With your support, we exceeded our goal of jamming a tram with enough rice and pasta to create 330,000 meals!
Rice and pasta are universally popular foods which help make a great meal go a little bit further for someone in need. Sadly, we will always need pasta to meet demand. We also need tinned tomatoes to ensure we have nutritious ingredients to add to our pasta sauces and casseroles all year round.
For every kilo of pasta donated, we can cook eight free meals packed with protein and vegetables.
Whether you’re an individual, family, school, business or community group, we urge you to jump on board and donate the missing ingredients to feeding more people.
Frequently asked questions
Our chefs need rice and pasta to accompany our casseroles, curries, tagines and sauces. These are universally popular foods, which help make a great meal go a little bit further for someone in need. We can never rescue enough of these precious ingredients – partly because of their popularity and long shelf life – which is why we need your support. Children in particular love pasta and it’s a great way of providing them with a nutritious meal.
Dried short-cut pasta such as penne, shells and spirals, is ideal. These can be paired with a range of sauces such as creamy ham and mushroom or Mediterranean vegetables. The most useful rice is medium grain, basmati or jasmine – perfect accompaniments for our nutritious curries and casseroles. Rice and pasta must be uncooked.
Head to https://fareshare.secure.force.com/Donations/VIC/ricepasta to donate.
If you’re running a rice and pasta drive in Melbourne and have a large quantity to collect, please email Patrick Lanyon (patrick.lanyon@fareshare.net.au). Our food rescue vans will collect 100kg of rice and pasta from the Melbourne area.
Take a snap and share it with us
The rice and pasta tram carries an important message to our city about hunger. If you spot the 109 FareShare tram on its route between Port Melbourne and Box Hill we’d love you to take a shot and share it on Instagram or Facebook using the hashtag #faresharetram. We’ll promote the best images on our social media and on this page. The more creative the better!
The team behind the FareShare tram
FareShare could never have used a tram as a billboard without a humbling collaboration of people and organisations donating their services for free.
Our rice and pasta tram was made possible by a Community Partnership with Yarra Trams who donated a three-month, full tram wrap to FareShare. We acknowledge this wonderful opportunity with sincere thanks.
FareShare is deeply grateful to the team at Davidson Branding who have skillfully updated the FareShare brand and created the design for the FareShare tram. We hope this will make a significant difference to fighting hunger in our city.
The stunning photography for the 109 tram was taken by Adrian Lander, one of Melbourne’s finest. He was supported by volunteer food stylist Fiona Hammond.
Huge thanks are also due to Anne Chiew, an incredibly generous and skilled volunteer, who not only created this web page but built our entire new website.
We’re also grateful to Max Barden who donated his time and skills to shoot the campaign video.
And we acknowledge Omar of NSM Food Wholesalers in Brunswick for his fantastic contribution to filling a tram with rice by matching dollar donations to double your gift in rice.
Finally we acknowledge FareShare’s brave staff member Alice and volunteer Tony for agreeing to be the faces on our rice and pasta tram.
