City of Melbourne Council is stepping up its efforts to address local food insecurity with the launch of a new food relief program.
The Council says the ongoing cost-of-living crisis has seen nearly 1-in-2 residents struggle to feed themselves and their families.
Data shows last year almost 1-in-3 Melbourne residents skipped meals or were worried they would run out of food. As the nation’s foodie capital, this isn’t good enough, the Council said in a statement.
With support from the Victorian Government’s Community Food Relief Local Grants Program, the Council is turning a challenge into an opportunity, boosting food relief with a new program to distribute fresh food to the community.
At the heart of this is Queen Victoria Market – the largest open‑air market in the southern hemisphere and the City of Melbourne’s biggest source of fresh produce.
Each year, it generates up to 800 tonnes of surplus food and organic material, about the weight of 30 Melbourne trams.
Now, QVM traders and food relief providers will work together to make sure this surplus food ends up where it matters most: on people’s plates, the Council said.
Social enterprise STREAT sort and grade the donated food onsite at QVM before SecondBite deliver it to local food relief providers, who then distribute the rescued food to the community.
Local food relief providers, like Carlton’s Church of All Nations Parish Mission, are excited about the difference this program will make.
“As a small organisation, we don’t get a lot of funding, so this food will go a long way in helping us feed the local community through our various programs,” said Virginia Moebus-Nelson, Executive Officer at the parish.
“One program is a free fresh food market we run every Thursday. It starts at 9am but there are people lining up from 5.30am – older people, migrants and refugees from the local housing towers, mums with newborns in their arms.
“The food is gone within half an hour, people are desperate, and this extra boost of produce will mean we’re able to help more people.”
Produce from the Queen Victoria Market will be available to people experiencing food insecurity through programs run by community food relief providers, but there are other ways to source fresh and affordable food.
“More and more people are turning to our programs and services to access free food and community meals, and the produce in our community food pantry is disappearing faster than we can replenish it,” said Mary-Anne of the West Melbourne Baptist Church and Community Centre.
For the past three years, Mary-Anne has worked alongside dozens of volunteers to help support some of Melbourne’s most vulnerable.
“I’ve had mothers and fathers who are employed come to us because they struggle to put affordable food on their tables. Sometimes a choice needs to be made between paying a bill and buying food.”
Global unrest, extreme weather causing havoc with local crops and Australia’s supermarket duopoly mean fresh and healthy food is now out-of-reach for many, she says.
