Shepparton Foodshare is a community initiative that rescues and receives donations of food to distribute to local emergency relief agencies, schools and churches that support people in necessitous circumstances in the Goulburn Valley. Since 2012 Shepparton Foodshare has been rescuing and receiving donations of fresh and nutritious food and redistributing it to those in need in the Goulburn Valley and beyond. Food is then collected by registered emergency relief agencies, faith organisations, neighbourhood houses and schools and distributed to those in need within the local community. The food rescued by, and donated to Foodshare, is at its ‘best before’ date or may, for example have labelling errors. Depending on the type of food, it may remain fit for consumption for days to months after this date. By storing the food according to regulation guidelines, Foodshare is able to extend its shelf life to provide nutritious meals for local people and prevent edible food entering the waste stream. Through its rescue, sorting and redistribution operation, Foodshare is able to prevent around 300,000 kilograms of food from going into landfill as waste every year. An additional environmental benefit from our food sorting process is the separation of food and plastic packaging, with vegetable food waste provided as farm animal food, and plastic waste redirected from landfill into the recycling stream. Along with the positive impact of providing nutritious food to those that would otherwise go hungry, the social impact of Shepparton Foodshare also flows to the more than 40 volunteers whose combined work each week exceeds 150 hours. These volunteers benefit from and contribute to a sense of community resilience and connectedness, and have the opportunity to gain pre-employment and vocational skills. The community initiative is overseen by a skills based volunteer Board and operates from a warehouse in Mooroopna. Shepparton Foodshare is unable to support individuals. Registered agencies can collect food for the people they support as follows -
Collection Times:
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 9.30am to 11.30am
