Food insecurity hastens work on relief centre

THE City of Greater Geelong is working to finalise a location for a new food relief centre.

With an increasing number of residents being left hungry, the council has budgeted $75,000 to start preparations for the facility.

The Give Where You Live Foundation has dubbed food insecurity in the region a “growing crisis”.

Mayor Bruce Harwood said the project would assist with the distribution of food to those in need across Geelong.

“There are currently a number of food distributors around Geelong,” Cr Harwood said.

“We value their services to the community, particularly as we see an increase in the number of homeless and disadvantaged people who rely on food assistance.”

The Geelong Advertiser recently revealed the Give Where You Live Foundation’s Food for Thought: A Snapshot of Food Assistance in the Geelong/G21 Region, Victoria report found a conservatively estimated 717,883 meals a year, or the equivalent of about 2000 a day, are provided by the food-assistance system in the G21 region.

At least 63 organisations provided and distributed food assistance in the Geelong/ G21 region, the report said.

Give Where You Live Foundation chief executive Bill Mithen dubbed food insecurity in the G21 region a “growing crisis”.

Mr Mithen said a centralised warehouse would help the food assistance system, which had been built in a “bit of an ad hoc way”, become more efficient.

“We’re really supportive of the idea of a centralised warehouse and it’s a recommen- dation of the original (Food for Thought 2014) report that we’d love to see it come to fruition,” he said.

Cr Harwood said assessments into the future home of the facility were ongoing.

“We have carried out some site inspections, however a location has not yet been determined,” he said.

The council’s draft Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan identifies the need to support initiatives that increase access to healthy food.

Emergency food relief was a priority, after statistics showed 4 per cent of Geelong residents ran out of food and could not afford to buy more.

Cr Pat Murnane spoke at the August council meeting of the need to listen to new voices to find solutions.

“There is homeless (people) in our streets and children starving in their homes, we need to take some action,” Cr Murnane said.