Foodbank Partnerships Builds New Refrigeration Facility
18 March 2010 at 3:53 pm
Private partnerships with Victoria’s largest independent relief resource centre, VicRelief Foodbank, have helped to build the state’s largest emergency relief refrigeration facility.
The facility will make available an additional 200,000 meals in times of crisis with more than 1.6 million kilos of extra food to be delivered per year.
The new facility was funded through private partnerships between VicRelief Foodbank and the Ian Potter Foundation, The Danks Trust and Swire Cold Food Storage. Many others donated time and material to get the project completed.
The Foodbank says the Ian Potter Foundation provided $150,000 and the Danks Trust an addition $35,000 towards the building of the facility.
Swire Cold Food Storage managed the project free of charge and encouraged many of its suppliers to donate time and material to get the project completed.
VicRelief Foodbank is Victoria’s largest independent emergency relief resource centre, with a distribution network of more than 450 welfare agencies and community organisations distributing more than three million kilograms of food and emergency aid last year.
The cool storage facility will not only increase storage capacity for disaster relief, but will help meet the basic needs of people who, for whatever reason, cannot afford to put food on the table for their families.
As well, VicRelief Foodbank was vital in distributing more than 500,000 kilograms of food and emergency goods in the six months after the Black Saturday bushfires.
CEO of VicRelief Foodbank, Philip Hunt says the new facility can store 100 pallets of frozen and 100 pallets of refrigerated food.
Hunt says the new facility would have cost more than $350,000 to install had it not been for generous support from the Ian Potter Foundation, The Danks Trust and the efforts of Swire Cold Storage.
This year the Victorian Government is providing $1.98 million to VicRelief to help deliver their assistance, as well as a further $425,000 to support project officer roles in non-metropolitan regions.
Link www.vrfb.com.au
