The Philanthropic Collective has teamed up with Foodbank Victoria to provide free fresh fruit and vegetables for Hills locals in need.
On Wednesday 12 July, the Olinda Hall was home to a fresh food market, with beans, potatoes, capsicums as well as apples and pears on offer for people to pick themselves for a healthy boost to their meals.
Philanthropic Collective founder Andrew Fillip-Gaultier said the collaboration allowed the community to collect food in a clean, dignified and self-serve manner.
“It’s a self service model as opposed to a more prescriptive model where we’re loading things for people so that they’re able to actually grab what they need for themselves,” Mr Fillip-Gaultier said.
“What’s important is that it actually highlights the need for a food distribution point on the mountain…we don’t actually have anything that’s purpose built. We’re working out of the hall, which is fantastic, but it’s also a shared community space.
“For us, it means that we have to constantly bump in and out many times per week.”
Mr Fillip-Gaultier said the sheer numbers of people utlising the volunteer-driven organisation’s free food program, which provides fresh food to school students, families and community members, has “escalated enormously”.
“It demonstrates more than ever the need to have a place where we can just distribute more food to more people more rapidly,” he said.
“There’s been up to 100 people come through [today], a lot of people can’t come because they’re working, so we’ve made arrangements where a lot of our volunteers have then gone out and prepared boxes and have home delivered them.
“There’s also another crew that will come in after four o’clock when they’ve picked up their children from work, so in total from today, there’s been a reach of close to 250 people.”
Foodbank Victoria’s chief commercial officer, Katie Fisher, said the organisation’s team had been around Olinda, engaged with Mr Fillip-Gaultier and saw the demand for food relief in the relief.
“Our teams came together and thought ‘we’ve got the fresh produce and Andrew’s got the people, let’s figure out how we can connect them,’” Ms Fisher said.
“Today’s mini market was a beautiful example of that, providing healthy meals and healthy food in a really beautiful, dignified way.”
“A gentleman came up and said to me how amazing it was to have so many onions so that he could create Indian curries, because that was the basis of everything that he was cooking, so it’s really delightful to see that the produce is something that will go into these homes and end up people’s tables tonight.”
Demand for Foodbank Victoria’s services has “gone through the roof” in the past 12 months, Ms Fisher said, with dual income families coming to access services for the first time.
“That’s around all these multiple interest rate rises are pushing through into people’s pockets now and food becomes a discretionary item,” she said.
“When you have to pay your rent, you have to pay your electricity, the food is the piece that you can compromise on, and we feel so strongly that it shouldn’t be something that you have or you don’t have, that food is just a basic right.
“We work really hard to make sure that everyone has the access, despite whatever barriers they may have.”
Ms Fisher said it was a “privilege” to visit the market at Olinda, with people welcomed by name at the door to the local hall.
“To be able to see all the work that goes on in big distribution warehouses with trucks… to see it actually practically rolling out and happening with community on the ground and particularly on such a beautiful sunny day in such a beautiful part of the country, it’s a real privilege,” she said.
Mr Fillip-Gaultier said one of the core values of the Philanthropic Collective is to “do things with love”.
“Everything is free, no one is paid, no one is turned away,” he said.
“It is the community connecting with community and looking out for each other, and that’s the beautiful thing; sometimes it’s got less to do with actual food than social connection and connection to each other.”
