FoodAssist Toowoomba charity needs more hands to keep up with demand for hampers created by COVID-19 pandemic

A Toowoomba food charity is desperately needing more volunteers to help create hampers for people experiencing economic hardship.

Food Assist in Vanity Street are seeking more volunteers to help run the service. Harvinder Khalsa, manager

Harvinder Khalsa has witnessed the number of people needing help with basic food staples skyrocket in the past year, and he knows he needs more hands to do it.

The manager of FoodAssist Toowoomba, which creates food hampers for people struggling to make ends meet, says he needs more volunteers to keep up with the demand created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr Khalsa said he currently needed the equivalent of three more people per day to help sort the enormous quantities of food at the warehouse on Vanity St in Rockville and turn them into hampers filled with dried goods, fresh produce and even meat.

“On Friday we had 26 new people coming in to get new hampers,” he said.

“We would normally provide food for about 65 hampers, so to have 26 new was quite overwhelming.

“I took over the joint in July last year and we’ve struggled to get consistent volunteers.

“On a normal day where we think we can function smoothly, we require seven to eight workers, but that doesn’t happen.”

Mr Khalsa said the lack of volunteers meant the charity was forced to stop its delivery service, which severely affected people who were unable to drive to the warehouse.

“At the moment, we are committed to opening five days, but the thing we’re concerned about is we want to be open for a longer period,” he said.

“For us to have more impact, we need longer operating hours.

“We don’t expect them to be there for the full day.

“We have people who can only come three hours a day and that’s great.”

FoodAssist Toowoomba manager Harvinder Khalsa.

It’s been a busy 12 months for FoodAssist, with Mr Khalsa pointing to the reduction in government support payments correlating with the most recent increase in demand.

“With these payments being reduced, it will impact on the community,” he said.

“We have had some younger members coming to us — we never had that demographic of the population before this time.”

To learn more about FoodAssist Toowoomba, call 4634 1157 or find it on Facebook.