Geelong Foodshare

08/09/2026

🌱 What a day!

More than 100 people joined us on Friday to celebrate the soft opening of our new Geelong Foodshare Community Garden. Our new Community Garden sits on 1,000m² of land generously provided in-kind by Barwon Water in North Geelong and will be the home of our Grow. Connect. Share. program.

It’s a place where we can grow fresh, nutritious food, connect people with each other and with where their food comes from, and share skills, knowledge and produce across our community.

One of the highlights was seeing local Aboriginal artist Kiri Tawhai’s incredible mural, “What We Grow Together”, begin to take shape. The mural is all about Country, connection, generosity and shared belonging. Everyone was invited to pick up a brush and add their own “ripple” — representing how one small act of kindness can travel outwards and make a much bigger difference.

A HUGE thank you to our wonderful volunteers and the many people and organisations who have helped make this possible:

Victorian State Government • Barwon Water •City of Greater Geelong • The Anthony Costa Foundation • Harveys Wholesale • Geelong Community Foundation • APCO Foundation • PMF Foundation • Ford • Give Where You Live Foundation • Pressroom Philanthropy • Dulux • Geelong Access Hire • Routleys • Boomaroo • Foodcube • Kiri Tawhai • Vasili and production crew • EARL Landscaping • Diaco's Garden Nursery • Sproutwell • DANLY • Holiday Inn &Suites • Farm My School • Geelong Foodshare Volunteers • Insight • Hoselink • Geelong Farm & Pet • Luke and his Worm Farm • James and his Edible Flower Farm • Geelong West Community Garden • Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation

And a very special thank you to Sandi from Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-operative for her beautiful Acknowledgement of Country and heartfelt words on the day.

Have a flick through the photos 📸 — we think they tell the story better than we ever could.

This is what we grow together. 🌱💚

27/08/2026

Take a look at Dylan’s trolley – full of healthy, nutritious food that he’s chosen himself at our Social Supermarket.

For just $25 paid by a partner agency for a voucher, Dylan can access close to $230 worth of food at no cost to him. The impact that has on his weekly budget is profound.

But food security is about much more than the amount of food in a trolley. It’s about the six pillars of food security – including access, availability, choice and dignity.

Dylan gets to choose the food that works for him, shop in a welcoming environment, and access food at a time that suits his life – including until 7pm tonight.

That’s what food security looks like in practice.

And Dylan’s verdict? “I love the joint!” 🙌

Geelong Foodshare | Feeding social change.

Partnerships and supporters make this possible SecondBite OzHarvest Foodbank Victoria and so many more

17/08/2026

COOK. CONNECT. SHARE. — and now we’re growing!

What a fantastic first few months for our Cook. Connect. Share. program at Geelong Foodshare.

Since May, we have welcomed 55 participants via our agency partners like The Lounge, International Student Centre, MELi, Cultura and City of Greater Geelong.

The program has been supported by eight wonderful volunteer chefs — from Nyaal Banyul Geelong Convention and Event Centre, and Holiday Inn and Suites Geelong.

Cook. Connect. Share. is about much more than cooking. It brings people together to build food skills and confidence, share cultures and recipes, make connections and learn how to turn healthy, affordable ingredients into great meals.

And we're just getting started.

Our next chapter is Grow. Connect. Share., connecting our cooking and food education programs with our new Geelong Foodshare Community Garden. We're developing hands-on opportunities around growing, harvesting, cooking, healthy eating and making the most of fresh, seasonal food.

We’re also looking for new volunteers to get involved in both Cook. Connect. Share. and Grow. Connect. Share. Whether you have skills in cooking, gardening or simply enjoy working with people and would like to learn alongside us, we’d love to hear from you.

Take a look at some of the photos from Cook. Connect. Share. so far — and watch this space as Grow. Connect. Share. takes shape.

26/06/2026

The Power of Volunteers. The Value of Social Supermarkets.

It was a pleasure to welcome Victoria's Minister for Carers and Volunteers, Luba Grigorovitch MP , to Geelong Foodshare this week.

The visit was also attended by our Chair, Jo Plummer, Committee Member Mike McKinstry, and Regional Food Security Alliance Chair, Cathie Steele.

Our volunteers were proud to showcase what Geelong Foodshare is all about. They prepared a delicious lunch for our guests, including homemade vegetable pakora, borek and Saime's famous baklava – a wonderful reflection of the diversity, generosity and community spirit that make our volunteer team so special.

Congratulations to Ess, Zayneb and Bob, who were photographed for the Geelong Advertiser. Keep an eye out for the article.

The visit also marked the launch of The Value of Social Supermarkets report. Across Victoria, Regional Foodshares are helping people experiencing food insecurity access nutritious food in a way that preserves dignity, choice and connection.

The findings for Geelong Foodshare highlight the significant value created by this model:

• Every $1 invested in our Social Supermarkets generates $13.20 in social value.
• Looking at cash investment alone, every $1 invested returns more than $123 in social benefit.

Behind these figures are real people and real outcomes.

"The volunteers are so welcoming, and I leave with a loaded trolley full of fresh groceries. I am so grateful to have this service in Geelong." – Geelong Foodshare voucher recipient

Thank you to Minister Grigorovitch for taking the time to visit and learn more about our work, and to our incredible volunteers whose commitment, generosity and kindness make Geelong Foodshare what it is every day.

21/05/2026

💛 National Volunteer Week 💛
"Your year to volunteer"

This week we celebrated the incredible volunteers who make Geelong Foodshare what it is — a welcoming, compassionate community creating local food security every single day.

One Social Supermarket client recently shared:

"What stood out most was the dignity and kindness shown by your volunteers."

More than 220 regular volunteers, alongside school groups and corporate teams, help create local food security through kindness, dignity and community.

We celebrated with a BBQ in the warehouse, coffees thanks to the wonderful APCO Foundation and a visit to our new Community Garden site on land generously provided by Barwon Water.

A special moment was recognising Marj, our longest serving volunteer, after 26 years of service to the community ❤️

Thanks to support from the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing - VIC , we’ve also been able to provide APCO fuel vouchers to volunteers. The cost-of-living and fuel pressures are felt by volunteers too, and sometimes volunteering means making sacrifices elsewhere. We’re grateful to be able to give something small back to those who give so much.

Thinking about volunteering? This is your year to volunteer 🙌

15/05/2026

Geelong Foodshare was proud to feature on Pressing:on with Claudia Nankervis 🎙️

Recorded in Pressroom Media’s incredible podcast studio and proudly supported by The Phil Taylor Foundation, this episode explores the growing challenge of food insecurity and the importance of dignity-driven support, collaboration and innovation in creating long-term change.

In the episode, CEO Andrew Schauble and Head of Impact Felicia Bell discuss:
🥕 How Geelong Foodshare supports more than 20,000 people each week
🛒 The impact of our Social Supermarket model
♻️ Food rescue initiatives reducing waste and feeding the community
🤝 The power of partnerships in creating lasting social change
💚 Why food security is about dignity, choice, nutrition and connection

A huge thank you to Pressroom Philanthropy, Claudia Nankervis and the Pressroom team for helping share these important conversations.

🎧 Tune in and hear how together we are feeding social change.

26/03/2026

Opening Night: Mercer St Social Supermarket & Education Kitchen

On Tuesday night, we officially opened our Mercer St Social Supermarket and Education Kitchen.

What stood out most was the space — filled with partners, volunteers, community leaders and supporters who helped bring this project to life. It’s hard to thank everyone individually, but this has truly been a collective effort.

We heard from a range of voices on the night:

- An Acknowledgement of Country from Sandy from Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-operative
- Christine Couzens MP, representing local MPs
- Jo Plummer, our new Chair, sharing the importance of Mercer St and the role of food education in long-term food security
- Pauline, bringing the volunteer perspective and what’s seen and heard on the floor every day
- Monique from Rosewall Community Centre, speaking to the real impact of food education in building confidence and changing behaviours

This project was made possible through the generosity of an anonymous donor, which enabled many others to step in and contribute along the way.

Mercer St is more than a supermarket. It’s food security infrastructure — combining access to healthy food with education and connection.

Recent Social Return on Investment analysis by Think Impact (through RFSA) found that for every $1 invested into our Social Supermarkets, more than $123 in social value is created.

Thank you to everyone who played a role in bringing Mercer St to life — transformational food infrastructure for the Geelong community.

Geelong Foodshare has many supporters including the Victorian State Government, the City of Greater Geelong and Harvey’s Wholesale, along with the many individuals and organisations who continue to back this work.

04/03/2026

Volunteers Wanted – Join the Geelong Foodshare Team

Geelong Foodshare is looking for eager and flexible volunteers to join our incredible team — particularly drivers who are also happy to help out in the warehouse.

Why not team up with your best mate and volunteer together on Thursdays? You’ll help collect food from local supermarkets and suppliers, then assist our team in preparing and distributing it to support over 20,000 people across our community every week.

You’ll be joining a passionate team of 200+ volunteers who power everything we do at Geelong Foodshare. It’s a chance to make a real difference, meet great people, and be part of something that truly matters.

It’s one of the most meaningful ways you can give back to your community — and you’ll have a great time doing it.

Click the link to start volunteering today https://geelongfoodshare.org/give-time/volunteer/

Please help spread the word by sharing this post with friends, family or colleagues who might be interested.

16/02/2026

We’re excited to share that Geelong Foodshare has been invited to present at a national webinar hosted by Sustain: The Australian Food Network

When emergency food relief can no longer meet the scale, complexity or dignity required under sustained cost-of-living pressure, new models are needed.

Social Supermarkets are emerging as one of those responses.

Felicia Bell, our Head of Impact, will join Rodney Spinks, Churchill Fellow, to explore:
• What the social supermarket model is
• How it works in practice
• Where it sits between emergency relief and retail
• How we embed choice, dignity and longer-term food security

At Geelong Foodshare, we’ve seen firsthand how Social Supermarkets are transformational, not transactional — strengthening referral pathways, supporting agency wraparound care, and restoring real choice.

This conversation is timely. Cost-of-living pressures aren’t short-term. Our response can’t be either.

Join us this Wednesday 18 February at 12:30pm for this free one-hour session.

Register here:
https://events.humanitix.com/social-supermarkets-webinar

As cost-of-living pressures deepen, emergency food relief alone is no longer enough. Social supermarkets are reshaping food access through dignity and choice.

29/01/2026

Geelong Foodshare’s new Mercer Street Social Supermarket is now OPEN!

43 Mercer Street, Central Geelong

After more than a year of planning, building and anticipation, we are thrilled to officially open our brand-new Mercer Street Social Supermarket — a dignified, spacious and welcoming hub designed to strengthen both immediate food access and long-term food security for our community.

This project has been made possible thanks to the extraordinary generosity of philanthropic groups, partners and individuals who contributed financially, volunteered countless hours, or shared specialist skills. Our major funder has chosen to remain anonymous, but our gratitude is immense — this milestone simply wouldn’t exist without you.

A huge thank you to the many people behind the scenes who shaped this space, including the key volunteers who provided crucial skills, energy and hands-on support. And to our project partners whose contributions — from design and construction to materials, equipment and professional expertise — helped bring Mercer Street to life.

Mercer Street represents a major step forward for Central Geelong. It offers:
• A larger, fully fitted, dignified shopping environment
• Greater choice and increased capacity for local families
• Easy on-street parking, close public transport and walking distance to Geelong Train Station
• A purpose-built education kitchen for our free Cooking Programs and food literacy sessions

Because the future of food security is not just access — it is education, skills, connection and confidence.

We’re also proud to now offer evening access across four nights a week until 7pm, plus Saturday mornings at Morgan Street, making food support more accessible for working families.

Our Social Supermarkets are transformational, not transactional, with access via partner agencies to ensure people receive the right support alongside dignified, choice-based food access.

A special acknowledgement to our long-standing partnership with the Give Where You Live Foundation — with over 90 percent of their community vouchers redeemed through our Social Supermarkets, this sets a benchmark for regional food security.

If your organisation would like to connect through referrals, Cooking Programs, volunteering or partnership, we would love to hear from you.

Together, we are feeding social change.

With thanks to our incredible project partners:

Pressroom Philanthropy • Signs t’Go • Standby Security • Southern Cross • TS&B Retail Systems • Bellarine & Westcoast Refrigeration • Kennedy’s Group Plumbing • Palmers Plaster • Glenn White Painting • Dulux • Cainys Plumbing • Adrian • and many more.