Venue:                   Castello's Cucina, Living Choice 

 

 

Guests:                  Rob's assistants Leanne and Caroline

 

Attendance:           24 members  3 guests

Paul Duke sailed along with harmony in the invocation. President John reported a super profit of $500+ from Mitre 10 last Saturday. A resignation was submitted by Trevor McGuirk, which was accepted by the Board. We will miss your endeavour, Trevor. The POOTY ceremony will be at the Showgrounds this Friday and we will have the winner as our guest next Tuesday. There is a need to maximise attendance.

By way of introduction, Greg has been CEO of Foodbank SA since 2014 and his territory now includes the NT. He is responsible for the overall management and strategic direction of his organisation. His innovative approach has seen food delivery double.

 

Greg is an Unley 'old boy' having lived in Hyde Park and attended Unley Primary School. Food insecurity is the absence of sufficient healthy food and is prevalent across Australia. It was estimated that 2 million households experienced this at some time over the last year and only 700,000 were able to be assisted.

The massive rise in cost of living has hit household budgets hard and some have experienced as much as a 64% increase. Credit card debts and Afterpay have exacerbated the situation for many. No area is immune eg there has been a demand by schools in the eastern suburbs to provide breakfast for some of their students. There is a growing demand in regional areas. In SA, 130,00 households (50% with children) struggled in the last 12 months and 78,000 children suffered severe shortages of good food.

 

Foodbank is the largest provider of emergency food in SA and across Australia. 80% of the food for the welfare sector with its 600 charities is sourced through Foodbank. 500 schools have been supplied with breakfasts. Australia-wide the equivalent of 8 million meals was delivered during the year, 135,000 per month in SA. Its mission statement is to provide the most food to the most people in the most efficient way. It is an essential part of the food supply chain. 22 years ago it started as food rescue picking up unwanted stock from supermarkets and distributing to areas of need. Today, in addition to supermarkets, there is an extensive network of suppliers in the manufacturing sector and the farming community who provide donations and preferential pricing. The main SA warehouse has 750,000 kilos of product which turns over every 3 months. A number of SA country towns are now being serviced, as is Katherine in the NT. One of the keys to the Foodbank success has been the establishment of supermarket style food hubs and distribution centres where those referred by charities attend. Other household goods like toiletries, nappies and dog food are stocked.

 

Coles and Woolworths have been exceptional in their support with free deliveries (even into the NT), help with fit outs and, during Covid, donations of $1m each. Plenty of vegemite chocolate was delivered soon after launch. During disasters the SA Government calls upon FB to help the relief effort with their mobile hubs - Kangaroo Island and Lobethal bushfires and the Riverland floods. San Remo provided 100 tons of pasta. FB operates with 58 staff and 600+ volunteers in SA. There are 49 major donors across Australia, and 13 in SA. $4m needs to be raised this year to cover the cost of tuna, rice, meat and milk where there is a paucity of donors. In SA 5% assistance has to date been provided by the State Government compared with 25% interstate (65% Victoria). The major challenges are to improve the supply chain and to reach out further into regional areas. Plans are underway to send a mobile hub to towns on the Eyre Peninsula.

 

Help is needed to raise money, recruit more volunteer drivers and to spread the message. 

 

Greg was applauded for his address and presented with a placard which displayed a $500 donation from the club. 

Upcoming Meeting

Mitre 10 and Bunnings Barbeques 

The Tale End.....