A decision by the Victorian government to cease the funding allocation for the regional delivery of chilled products at the end of June 2024 has left some regional FoodShare organisations including Corryong, high and dry without chilled food products.
Liberal Member for Northern Victoria, Wendy Lovell, has asked the Minister for Carers and Volunteers, in Parliament, to provide additional funding directly to rural and regional Foodshares to enable them to continue sourcing chilled products.
“FoodShare organisations provide an incredibly valuable service to Victorians by making food that might otherwise go to waste available to families facing financial stress,” Ms Lovell said.
As a result of the government’s decision, the auspicing agency Food Bank will no longer deliver critical foods like milk, yoghurt, cheese, fresh juice and other chilled products to regional and rural Foodshare organisations.
The funding cuts directly affect FoodShare Corryong which will no longer receive perishable fruit and vegetable chilled and frozen goods.
“We purchase directly from Foodbank in Melbourne and have our goods delivered by Wodonga FoodShare fortnightly,” said co-ordinator, Rev Carol Allen.
“The government’s decision will make things really difficult for us to meet the needs of our clients who doing it tough at the moment.
“We’re not really sure how we are now going to be able to source these products without additional funding and donations.”
Ms Lovell said that “FoodShares in larger regional cities can sometimes access limited chilled products from large supermarkets but in smaller towns this option is often not available.
“Many of these products are made locally and FoodShare outlets have tried to source chilled products directly from local food processors but many ‘food seconds’ are donated centrally to Foodbank, meaning some food produced in the area is not available in that region.
“Dairy products like milk, yoghurt, and cheese are important sources of calcium for children to grow up with strong and healthy bones, but families who face financial distress will often first cut back on more expensive grocery items like dairy.
“It is therefore highly important that food relief services are able to meet this critical nutritional need in the diets of children by supplying chilled foods like milk and yoghurt.
“However, due to the state government’s funding cut, FoodShares in regional Victoria will no longer be supplied with the chilled products that they used to receive and will now struggle to make dairy foods available to the children and families that they assist.”
“Chilled dairy foods are important for the diet of families that FoodShare assists. I urge the Minister to make funds directly available to regional outlets to cover the cost of collecting, storing and transporting chilled food that needs to be kept cold.”
This article appeared in the  Corryong Courier, 19 September 2024.
