Food donated from social media blitz
A connection made through social media has helped local women Rebecca Little and Gemma Torney collect an impressive donation of non-perishable food items for Baw Baw Combined Churches Food Relief.
Meeting in person for the first time to sort through their generous donations received from the community, Gemma said she decided to get involved with the cause after noticing an Instagram post by Rebecca rallying her friends to help with her food relief drive.
“I own my own business and put a call out on my Mumma Needs Instagram and Facebook pages,” she said.
“Messages have been flooding where can I drop off.
“Most people didn’t know there was a food relief.”
Initially beginning with a call out to friends to donate items or their time to go walking and door knocking, Rebecca said she was overwhelmed with the response that saw her dining room packed with donations made by generous members of the community.
“Most people were happy to donate but weren’t quite sure how to go about it,” she said.
“After the initial response was bigger than what we thought I made contact with Anne in, asking (Pascoe of Baw Baw Combined Churches Food Relief) to find out what the demand was.
“She told me they had 80 people walk through the door this week, and that inspired me to do well.
“I didn’t realise there was such a huge need in Warragul.
“I guess you can be blindsided and sometimes we need to be a bit more aware.”
Rebecca said while sometimes social media can be negative, she was amazed by its power in helping to achieve something positive.
“It’s amazing to meet like-minded people and help so many this Christmas.
“It’s something small but hopefully it makes a difference and makes it a little easier for them.”
Rebecca said she hoped to run the food relief drive again next year.
“It’s something I want to do next year, hopefully start it a bit earlier to collect double, maybe triple what we have this year,” she said.
Rebecca said there was still time to donate directly to Baw Baw Combined Churches Food Relief to help people in need this Christmas.
“There’s still time to donate, so if people have stuff left over or have shopped too much, hopefully they could go down to (Baw Baw Food Relief headquarters) Pearse St.”