Woolworths and Coles dig deep with donations to support Ingham’s residents
Ingham’s two major supermarkets, Woolworths and Coles, have dug deep to provide donations to support their flood-ravaged community. Find out what’s been donated.
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Ingham’s two major supermarkets, Woolworths and Coles, have dug deep to support the community, which has begun recovery efforts after an intense week of wet weather.
Woolworths Ingham was closed on Sunday due to being located in the evacuation zone, and because road access to the store had been lost.
The supermarket received a call on Sunday from its natural disaster partner The Salvation Army, explaining that the local evacuation centre was in urgent need of food and other emergency supplies.
With an SES boat close to Woolworths Ingham assistant store manager Julie Buckley’s house, she volunteered to hitch a ride to open up the store for the SES and police on Saturday afternoon.
All of the items that they collected, including essentials such as water, nappies, toilet paper, long-life foods, fresh produce, tea, and coffee, were subsequently donated by Woolworths.
Since moving from Airlie Beach to Ingham in 2023, Ms Buckley said the community had embraced her with open arms.
“Opening the doors to our store for SES and Police to collect supplies for the evacuation centre was the least I could do to help the community that’s made me feel so welcome,” Ms Buckley said.
“In Ingham, our customers are our neighbours, and our stores have an important role in helping them during disasters like this.”
Ingham’s Woolworths did not experience any significant damage and reopened under police guard on Tuesday morning.
To date, Woolworths has also donated 432 bottles of water and 96 litres of milk to Townsville’s three evacuation centres, along with practical items such as sheets, pillows, nappies, toiletries, pens, colouring books and pet food, and dry goods including bread, cereal, noodles, biscuits, coffee.
Meanwhile, Coles has donated $100,000 worth of food and groceries to the Hinchinbrook community.
Coles Ingham was closed but as Woolworths had a generator, the donation was dropped off at Woolworths on Anne St Tuesday afternoon.
The spokesman said Coles workers unloaded the products, which would then be officially distributed with the support of SES to get the food to where it needed to go, including the evacuation centre.
“We know that the Ingham community is doing it tough at the moment, and we have been working extremely hard to get this delivery into the area for the community,” the spokesman said.
“We are a proud part of the Ingham community, and with our store closed it was a no-brainer for us to simply donate it to those in need.
“We know how important food is during times like this, and are proud of how our team has collaborated with local authorities to achieve this.”
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