Calls for funding as more battling families reach out to Geelong Food Relief Centre

A Geelong emergency food relief centre says demand is surging, as more people continue to feel the pinch of the rising cost of living.

Geelong Food Relief Centre chief executive Andrew Schauble says demand for the charity’s service is significantly increase. Picture: Alan Barber

A Geelong emergency food relief centre says demand is continuing to climb, amid calls from a local Liberal MP for charities helping the community’s most vulnerable to receive ongoing funding.

Geelong Food Relief Centre (GFRC) chief executive Andrew Schauble said the organisation was continuing to see a significant increase in demand as more residents feel the pinch of rising costs of living.

“We have distributed 24 per cent more food in the first six months of this financial year (than last financial year),” he said.

The centre, which operates two mini marts in Geelong, provides more than 14,500 families from across the region with emergency food relief, such as fresh produce and canned goods.

Mr Schauble said the organisation was seeing more people ask for help who haven’t typically needed support before.

“It’s particularly a different cohort than what agencies have seen before,” he said.

Rising costs are leading to financially secure families seek support, as well as those on lower incomes and welfare payments.

Mr Schauble said residents were working hard to put food on the table and make ends meet but some “couldn’t quite get there”.

“It’s not just inflation across luxury items, it’s across the basics and that is when you hit a lot of people who are challenged financially in the first place,” he said.

“Interest rates going up is affecting people with mortgages but also those who are renting.

“The cost of a basket of food at the supermarket has gone up significantly.”

Western Victoria Liberal MP Bev McArthur. Picture: Glenn Ferguson

Western Victoria Liberal MP Bev McArthur has appealed to the state government to commit to providing ongoing, multi-year funding to organisations like the GFRC.

The organisation received $250,000 from the state government in last year’s budget, however, funding was not guaranteed each year.

“How can any organisation be expected to forecast and plan their operations when the money they are promised arrives late?,” Ms McArthur said.

“The GFRC is critical to the lives of more than 36,000 men, women and children across a vast area of the Western Victoria Region and so a delay in funding is totally unacceptable.”

Mr Schauble said as demand increased, so did the need for funding to allow the organisation to continue to provide its services.

Geelong MP Christine Couzens did not respond to requests for comment.

Originally published as Calls for funding as more battling families reach out to Geelong Food Relief Centre