Shepparton FoodShare has been offered a massive leg-up in its new home build, with $1.2 million to be spent on moving the service into a new food relief hub after its current Mooroopna warehouse was inundated by flood water.
Premier Daniel Andrews announced on Tuesday a $1 million boost as part of a raft of flood-relief packages, on top of $200,000 pledged earlier this week by Minister for Regional Development Harriet Shing and Member for Northern Victoria Mark Gepp.
Shepparton FoodShare chair Jeremy Rensford said the funding announcement was another landmark moment for the organisation.
“We’re absolutely pumped to hear both of those announcements,” Mr Rensford said.
“It’s extraordinarily beneficial for us getting up and running and getting our infrastructure up to scratch — it’s just huge for us.”
Mr Rensford said the funding would be enough for building plans to move forward on its Mooroopna block, which was donated to FoodShare by local business owners and philanthropists Jim and Ange Andreadis earlier this year.
“We’re over the line now,” Mr Rensford said.
“We’ll have more to say once we get the details, but we’ll be able to build and we’ll now have the all clear to now begin building plans.
“The plan is to build on that block; we’ve been donated a block and we now have enough money to build on that block so that plan will now move forward.”
State Member for Shepparton Suzanna Sheed welcomed the announcement, and said it had been a long time coming.
“I am delighted that the state government has come to the rescue to fund this project after the failed promise of $600,000 made by the Federal Coalition Government earlier this year,” Ms Sheed said.
“Shepparton FoodShare is the beating heart of food supplies for those in need in our community and they deserve to have funds to set up its permanent home in Mooroopna.
“Shepparton FoodShare provides food year-round to food relief agencies, we saw them come to the rescue supplying food to residents when we were in lockdown last year and again during the flood, even when their own premises was flooded.”
Flooding at its Mooroopna warehouse this week did little to get in the way of FoodShare’s operations, which are in full swing despite access and distribution hurdles.
The service has been called into action frequently over the past two years, and Mr Rensford said FoodShare’s growth in years to come would have to be navigated carefully.
“FoodShare is always there for our community in the necessity of the circumstances, and we will continue to do that, hopefully more effectively every year,” Mr Rensford said.
“We’re getting bigger, and that’s not always a good thing, but we get better every year and we would love to be not as much in need because that would mean our community is being fed, we certainly don’t want to grow for growth’s sake.
“At the moment, for obvious reasons 13 months ago with a massive local COVID crisis, in the wider sense the global pandemic and now this crushing flood that we have on our doorstep (has called FoodShare to action).
“In the immediate sense, FoodShare is here and we’re ready to do whatever we need to do to feed our community.”