When balancing the budget leaves you wondering how you’re going to pay the car insurance and registration, as well as feed the family, news that the popular FoodCare service is now open twice a week, has been warmly welcomed by regulars.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Sisters April and Fiona Knight are two of the 500 registered clients of the service that has been supplying high-quality food, at a fraction of the price found in supermarkets.
“Money gets really tight at times,” April Knight said, “especially when you have a lot of bills to pay.”
The FoodCare service is now opening on Thursdays, a day that is most welcome for Fiona Knight.
“Having the service open on the same day I get my Centrelink payment will really help us budget,” she said.
“I mainly get the basics like bread, milk and eggs because they’re so much cheaper here than at the supermarket.”
Many of the basics such as bread, fresh vegetables, milk and eggs are provided to the clients for free, supplied by local producers.
“We regularly receive milk from Dairy Farmers, bread from Coles and Baker’s Delight, apples from Bonnie Glen orchard, frozen goods from Barrett’s and fresh vegetables from the social harvest program,” volunteer Tim White said.
The Social Harvest program is where keen vegetable gardeners can deliver excess produce to the centre for distribution.
All other goods are supplied by Foodbank, Australia’s largest food relief organisation.
Due to the popularity of the service, some changes have been made to make it more like a supermarket experience, but there are many other significant differences, other than the genuine low prices.
“When people show up they take a number and are offered a sandwich or a roll and a cup of tea or coffee while they wait their turn,” Mr White said.
“We can’t cope with crowds of people all in here at once. We don’t have much space. When their number is called up we help them around the centre, if they need it.”
Carewest also offers transport to and from the centre on both days.
On average, FoodCare serves 100 customers a week, but they think that number will increase as word spreads of the extended opening hours and the partnerships they have formed with other government and community groups.
“Part of what we’re doing now is servicing those clients from other agencies in town,” Mr White said.
“They issue them with vouchers that they can use to shop here. It helps save them time and money for other services.”
FoodCare is open every Tuesday and Thursday from 9.30am to 12.30pm and operates at the Glenroi Community Centre in Garema Road.
