Loads of Love reveals incredible 2020 figures at thank you event

Queenslanders dug deep, donating over 28,000 kilos of food to the Loads of Love campaign for the charity’s biggest year to date.

2020 may have been a year most people would rather like to forget but it has become one to remember and celebrate for one Toowoomba-based organisation, as Loads of Love celebrates its biggest combined donation weight in the 11 year history.

It appears COVID did not stop the wider Queensland community from digging deep and contributing to the Christmas food appeal with a whopping 28,000 kilograms of food reaching 5,500 individuals in need last December.

“The community clearly rose to the challenge we presented them last year and we are so grateful for this continued generosity, especially in a time where more people than ever were doing it a little tougher than usual in the midst and aftermath of COVID,” Loads of Love founder and Community Engagement officer at Lifeline Darling Downs and South West Queensland, Matt Gregg said.

Part of the Lifeline team behind Loads of Love at the appreciation breakfast (from left) founder and community engagement manager Matt Gregg, fundraising and marketing manager Kirsten McGovern and CEO of Lifeline Darling Downs & South West Queensland Lifeline, Derek Tuffield. Picture: Nev Madsen

“Loads of Love is an initiative I started back in 2009 when I was with Civic Assist and never in my wildest dreams did I envision the food drive to grow to this size and proportion over the 11 years we’ve been running it.

“We had a target of collecting 25 tonnes in 2019 and we just exceeded that goal and then in 2020 we exceeded that again by another 3000 kilograms in 2020, which brings the total amount of donated food since 2009 to 124,000 kilograms which is just awesome.”

“We actually the public would step up to the challenge in 2020,” he said.

“We know the Toowoomba and wider Darling Downs community are an incredibly generous region so we had every hope and expectation that people would step up last year and help out because they knew that there were so many more people in need in our community.”

With over 100 volunteers and around 130 collection points across Queensland, Loads of Love had plenty of people to thank at their appreciation morning tea event at the Glen Postle Intergenerational Hub at Toowoomba Flexischool on Wednesday morning.

CEO of Lifeline Darling Downs and South West Queensland, Derek Tuffield was proud to announce last year’s campaign managed to assist 1500 families across the Darling Downs, Brisbane and Sunshine Coast, well exceeding Load of Love’s initial goal of 1000 families.

“This celebration morning tea is a way to getting our volunteers, sponsors and staff together who have all contributed to the Loads of Love initiative and helped make 2020’s campaign such a successful one,” he said.

“Lifeline took over the running of Loads of Love in 2018 and this is definitely our most successful campaign to date.
“We’re so grateful to every single member of the community who donated food, it really eased the financial burden and stress for 1500 families over that Christmas, New Year’s and back to school period when they otherwise would have had to go without.

Launching Loads of Love for Christmas 2020 are (from left) Andrew Fox of Heritage Bank, Julie Thompson of Grand Central, Matt Gregg of Lifeline and Gus Romero of Harvey Norman. Picture: Kevin Farmer

“It’s something Lifeline is exceptionally proud of and we’ve started a five year strategic plan to look at rolling out this campaign nationally, but it’s not something that’s going to happen over night, it’s a long term vision and for 2021 we hope to deliver even more food to those in need.

“As we like to say every kilo makes a difference.”

“I say this all the time, but I truly believe it rings true with our campaign,” Mr Gregg said.

“You may never know someone who was supported by the Loads of Love appeal but they will never forget what you did.”