The event aims to collect enough rice to provide 25,000 meals to local people that need it most.
“We don’t have a regular rice donor and we don’t regularly receive it in our food rescues,” Shepparton Foodshare chair Jeremy Rensford said.
“Therefore, we are asking our community to help if they can via this new initiative, the Great Rice Drive!”
A single 1kg bag of rice, costing less than $2, can provide around eight nourishing meals.
Community members can contribute by registering their business, school, community group, service club or sporting club as a rice collection point this May, helping Shepparton Foodshare achieve its goal of collecting enough rice to provide 25,000 meals.
All businesses or groups registered that collect and donate 100kg of rice or more to Shepparton Foodshare will be eligible for the draw to win five tickets to the food relief service’s popular annual fundraising dinner, Make A Meal Of June, at The Woolshed, Emerald Bank on Wednesday, June 18.
Members of the community wanting to pitch in can look out for the list of rice collection points, which will be advertised during May on Foodshare’s website and its social media.
Participants can select the location most convenient for them to drop their donation of rice off at.
“We are thrilled that we are on our way to achieving our goal of sourcing much-needed rice with our first business registered to collect rice, Cardamone Real Estate,” Mr Rensford said.
Lindi Cardamone said staff at the local real estate agency were thrilled to support the campaign.
“Cardamone Real Estate are very proud participants in the Shepparton Foodshare Rice Drive, as it is a wonderful way of giving back to the community and especially those local families in need,” she said.
“It’s great to see businesses stepping up to help, and encouraging others to become collection points is a great way to expand the impact.
“By working together, more families will benefit from this generous cause."
For the financial year 2023-24, Shepparton Foodshare distributed a record 490,000kg of food, a 30 per cent increase on the previous year, and the largest annual distribution since inception.
“The provision of food relief for our community remains at the core of our focus and at the heart of our decision making,” Mr Rensford said.
“We will continue to work hard to keep up with this increasing demand in our region, and the Great Rice Drive is just another way of doing that.”
Established in 2012 as a result of community need, Foodshare’s role as a food collection, warehousing, redistribution service also relieves businesses from dealing with the agencies who formerly sought support via food and financial donations, streamlining processes for businesses who want to donate, and agencies who need food for people they support.
Since its inception, Shepparton Foodshare has not only provided 4.6 million kg of food, the equivalent of 9.2 million meals to those in need, but also prevented over four million kg of edible food from entering landfill.
On average, around 400,000kg of food is distributed annually to registered emergency relief agencies, schools, community meals programs, faith organisations and neighbourhood houses.
The people supported by these agencies include individuals, families, children, homeless people and people from our multicultural community.
Terms and conditions for participating in this campaign, more information and a link to register can be found on the Shepparton Foodshare website at sheppartonfoodshare.org.au
For more information, contact Kate Smith at kate@sheppartonfoodshare.org.au
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