The Juicy Juice: Spring ’26
All roads led to a winter record, thanks to YOU. While the chilliest days didn’t land until July, pressure on Foodbank Vic’s supply chain arrived while daylight savings was still doing its thing. With the sudden closure of the Strait of Hormuz in March, demand for our food rose a staggering 10%. Our trucks and vans, which clocked up more than 500,000KM to deliver 28.3 MILLION MEALS in the last year, cost 20% more to run. For our 450+ charity partners, collecting food from our warehouses each week became harder financially, pushing some to the brink. While farmers and growers looked to scale back their crops, and donations of pantry-staple food fell. Yes, a pause in the fuel excise brought relief at the bowser, but at our Community Food Centres and markets we saw more and more new faces every week, people seeking food relief for the very first time. By April, we were feeding 76,000 VICTORIANS A DAY. Our stocks couldn’t keep pace with the skyrocketing need, the highest level in our 96-year history. So, we launched our Winter Appeal early. Earlier than we’ve ever done before.
And thanks to you and thousands of kind-hearted Victorians, we raised a historically high
6,524,650 MEALS.
And the award for BEST SUPPORTING ROLE goes to…
774 ABC’s … Meals for Melbourne & William Angliss Winter Night Market
Awards nights are great, but real impact doesn’t need a red carpet. This winter a few real-life stars flew wayyyyyy under the radar. Not our radar of course. These Melbourne locals saw hardship, heard a story, and decided to do something about it. When a brave caller named John shared his experience of hunger on 774 ABC Melbourne with Raf Epstein, listeners didn’t just listen. In just two weeks, they helped ABC’s Meals for Melbourne raise the equivalent of 80,000 MEALS for Foodbank (and 50 boxes of pantry items), so we could support more Victorians like John, who hadn’t eaten for three days.
Kindness, repeat. Nourishment, repeat. Your impact, repeat. Nourish Collective is our solid-as-a-rock regular giving community, whose monthly donation to Foodbank means we can plan and purchase for whatever is coming, always maintaining a reliable supply of nourishing food in our warehouses and Community Food Centres. No wonder we bang on about them! Bang on about them! (See what we did there…haha.) In the last 12 months, this big-hearted bunch helped us create more than 3,767,515 MEALS for Victorian families doing it tough. Bringing the joy of knowing there’ll be food on the table every day. Pretty great people, huh? We reckon so, too. If that sounds like the sort of thing you want to be a part of, we’d love to have you. CLICK HERE FOR ALL THE DEETS!
Over at William Angliss Institute, students showed their imaginative flex and turned fundraising into a full-blown foodie experience, serving up great eats and good vibes at their Winter Night Market. Around 14,000 MEALS raised on that starry, starry night. Different ideas. Same energy. Victorians backing Victorians.
START YOUR OWN FUNDRAISER HERE.
65 million brekkies.
Even more smiles.
“If I come to school without breakfast, it’s harder to learn,” says Aamena, a Year 8 student leader at Mount Waverley Secondary College, who arrives before the morning bell to help serve up Brekky Club. “Because of Breakfast Club, I can have cereal or toast or anything I like, and I come to school full… It really helps those who have to come to school early or can’t afford breakfast.”
We’re feeding families from desk to dawn… orders for our School Breakfast Clubs Program have jumped 13% since the fuel crisis.
Across the state, we’ve now served up more than 65 MILLION MEALS, in partnership with the Victorian Government. That’s 65 million mornings made a whole lot brighter for 600,000 students across 1,390 schools. Happy kids with bellies full of healthy food heading to class, content and ready to learn.
is growwwwing up! Our GROW program is coming of age. In its first year, we rescued almost 1 million kilos of surplus produce from farms and delivered it to Victorians doing it tough. Yup, a whopping 1 million kilos of nutritious, perfectly edible fresh produce that would otherwise not have left the farmgate because the time and cost to pick and move it just doesn’t add up for growers already stretched to their limits.
Lady marmalade Some 96 years ago, Foodbank’s story started with donated fruit and a group of determined women. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, they turned that fruit into more than half a million jars of jam. Today, we’re still preserving those traditions. And spreading the love – here’s a delish recipe from our very own Chef Sharon in Morwell. CLICK HERE FOR THE RECIPE.
That’s our GROW program in action. A Foodbank initiative that helps growers find a home for their surplus produce and provides communities around them with the seasonal fruit and veg that would otherwise be out of reach. Good for farmers, good for communities, made possible with your support. And the Vic Government, too. Puts a whole new positive spin on the phrase, ‘Just GROW up!’ Or is that just us?
The moment YOU stopped traffic. Tears. Relief. Connection. It’s what brought Kororoit Creek Road to a standstill on Sunday 31 May. In response to the record demand for food relief, we held our first Emergency Hamper Drive Thru since COVID. More than 894 cars (and a fair few bicycles) arrived at our Altona warehouse, where volunteers packed boots with pantry staples, fresh fruit and vegetables, yoghurt, pumpkins, watermelons and more. In just one day, we distributed more than 36,000KG OF FOOD to thousands of Victorians. Food packed into hampers ready to fill empty pantries and fridges, all thanks to your support. One moment captured the spirit of the day. A family came driving through not to collect food, but to donate. Their kids handing over their pocket money so other kids and families could have something to eat. Awwww... Made our day!
Our MARATHON effort in a BIG country town Nearly 12,000 runners hit the streets for the Ballarat Marathon in April – and our Foodbank team was right there with them. While some runners donned medieval armour, we opted for banana suits (obviously). Fuelled by a determination to help locals doing it tough, our team ran their hardest to raise 37,000 MEALS. Huge thanks to the Ballarat Marathon crew, Cobs Popcorn for the snack fuel, Cheer Cheese Australia for the cheese toasties (with 50% donated back to Foodbank), and Lineage for their fantastic support. We’ll be back on the track in 2027 – as a headline charity partner of the Ballarat Marathon. ON YOUR MARK, GET SET…REGISTER! CLICK HERE TO GET INVOLVED.
The Bont, the Boot and the business of helping What’s Bulldogs captain Marcus Bontempelli doing with our Foodbank vollies, and a whole lot of Red Tractor Oats? What the heck’s a car boot challenge? How do you get to be top of the Foodbank packing leaderboard? The answers all involve corporate friends of Foodbank doing extremely kind things to help feed Victorians. Donating food (Red Tractor and ALDI), rallying their workplace teams to fill a virtual car boot with food and groceries (a long list of kind corporates), and volunteering their time to pack and distribute food in our warehouses and markets across the state. WANT TO GET YOUR TEAM INVOLVED? IT STARTS HERE.
A Gift for Generations
Your Empties. Full Tummies.
You know what helps us go those extra kays, day after day? YOU. Victorians looking after Victorians. Your support keeps our shelves stocked and our trucks rolling, delivering fresh food all across the state. That kinda kindness today means food on tables for families tomorrow.
Now here’s an idea that’s so good, it’s worth bottling (again, and again). Those empty 10c containers hiding out in your bin? Well, they’re destined for much more than your recycling. Thanks to Victoria’s Container Deposit Scheme, we’re turning your empties into meals for families doing it tough. Just choose Foodbank Victoria as your refund buddy next time you return your bottles, cans and cartons to any CDS Vic depot around the state. And with your help, we’ll turn every 5 of your empties into 1 meal. It’s a win-win for the recycling bin!
This month, we’re teaming up with Safewill for Charity Wills Week (7-21 September) to make leaving a legacy that little bit easier – and cost-free. By choosing Foodbank Victoria in your Will, you’ll be leaving a gift that will help nourish Victorian families for many tomorrows to come. CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT BECOMING A FOREVER FOOD ANGEL.
Pledge for MORE VEG We’ve taken the Pledge for More Veg. No, not to sit on the couch! (Though sometimes, wouldn’t that be nice?) To help Victorians eat more veggies. Just an extra 75 grams a day. With only 6.5% of adults and 4.6% of kids getting their recommended 5 daily serves, we’re working hard to get more fresh food out to our communities. Like our Plus One Serve uni markets, which have been expanded for students across Melbourne, planting the seeds for a lifetime of healthy eating habits, something that wouldn’t be true without you.