00:02these tubs are all part of food banks farms to families programs and people in need can come
00:08along and select some of the fresh produce from these shoots below and the tubs are all loaded
00:14onto the back of trucks to go out to the areas where people need this relief most and with this
00:21area is staffed by some very competent volunteers and managers who are busy loading up all this
00:28fabulous food ready to go out to those areas but this used to be also what they'd take out to
00:36the
00:37regions now food bank also has community food centers that can do the job and i am joined now
00:46by julie paulie who is the manager of the community food center at morwell which is in gippsland in
00:53victoria's east thanks for speaking with us about this julie just how busy has it got of late
01:00our phones are ringing all day every day from open to close we have a community food market that we
01:08open or was open two days a week we've now increased it to three days a week on top of
01:14our food
01:14distribution to our charity partners so we're seeing more and more new families coming through the
01:20center asking for food assistance so yeah so what are some of the stories of people that you're
01:26hearing that are really struggling so a couple of days ago i had a young dad call he's a single
01:32dad
01:33with a young daughter and for the first time he had no food for his child so he was about
01:40three days
01:41off getting paid and was actually in tears on the phone because he didn't know what to do
01:45so i invited him to come into the center went through some information with him around how he
01:51can connect with charity partners for other ongoing services as well but also gave him packed him some
01:57food while he was there so just the relief on his face to know that you know we're there we
02:03can help
02:03him and that he did have food for his daughter for the next couple of days so it must be
02:09such a
02:09worthwhile job to see the change that you can help make for people like that absolutely so you know
02:16we do this you know every day and we do it because we love it um but as i said
02:21you know the demand and
02:22the need um in regional victoria is just growing every single day so yeah and i think you mentioned
02:29that with that single dad he only had enough money because he had to have the money for fuel to
02:34get to
02:35work is that the main reason that you think that regions particularly are suffering so much compared
02:41with people who are in the cities well when you think about it in regional victoria um some towns
02:47you know people don't have the option or don't have the option of going five minutes down the road to
02:52a
02:53supermarket some of them have got to travel half an hour some of them 45 minutes so you know and
02:58that
02:58takes a lot of fuel to do that so um with the increased cost they're not they don't have the
03:04option of going and buying food and going to work um so you know they're holding on to their money
03:10so
03:10they can can work some parents can't even afford to actually take the kids to school um they're
03:16staying home and homeschooling them just so they've got enough money so um but when you think about it
03:23there's you know we've got families that you know are only just making enough now for to get to work
03:29but
03:29not not not enough money for food so yeah and of course that situation is going to be exacerbated
03:35when that fuel excise discount disappears as well a lot of people are going to be watching the federal
03:41budget tomorrow and trying to see what sort of relief federal politicians might be able to give them
03:47but just in a broader perspective yeah what is your call out there um we need financial support so
03:54we're feeding 76 000 victorians every single day um and one dollar will create two meals so if people
04:03can open their hearts open their wallets um donate a dollar donate ten a hundred it doesn't matter every
04:09single dollar helps um we really really need the financial support at the moment and this is all part of
04:16your winter appeal which has started early because of fuel because of rising interest rates are you
04:21worried that it's going to be a really tough winter for a lot of people absolutely it's um it's been
04:28a
04:28tough summer as well so you know there is no relief um inside at the moment so um you know
04:36that's why
04:37we're calling for help so it's going to get tougher more people are going to need our help with food
04:43um and we just want to be prepared and make sure that that help is there for them so yeah
04:48thanks jules
04:49for giving us that update and that understanding of exactly what's happening particularly out in
04:54regional australia you can see at food bank victoria's new warehouse behind me these pallets
05:02of food that go as far as the eye can see that is all going to be going out to
05:08help people who are
05:10really struggling at the moment in terms of this cost of living crisis and the rising inflation levels
05:16that we're seeing at the moment
Comments