Foodbank WA fights hunger with
FREE fruit and vegetables

Relentless increases in grocery prices are seeing healthy, balanced diets become increasingly unaffordable for Western Australian families on low to middle-range incomes in the current cost-of-living crisis.  

Just a few of the benefits of an affordable healthy diet include improved overall health, education outcomes for children, reduced future health costs and reduced social inequality.

This urgent need for the provision of healthy fruit and vegetables for Western Australian families has not gone unnoticed at Foodbank WA, and we are proud to announce that we now offer free fruit and vegetables at our branches and Mobile Foodbanks.   

Over the past twelve months, Foodbank WA has provided 1,273,375 kgs of fruit to our charity partners, schools and directly to households. This equates to 37% of our overall food distribution total.  

Foodbank WA CEO Kate O’Hara said that “this transition to free fruit and vegetables will see more than a million kilos of fresh produce provided free across the State. The benefit this will have for households and charity partners is enormous as well as the increased benefits on the environment through rescue of produce, while also supporting local growers by purchasing produce. We have been working hard with growers to ensure we have plenty of supply.”  

The benefits flow across many sectors – increased consumption of fruit and vegetables, improving health outcomes for the community, reduced land fill benefiting our environment, local procurement from growers, and most importantly reducing the household budget in light of the cost-of-living pressures facing so many.” Kate continued.   

Free fruit and vegetables mean that people no longer have to worry about the affordability of buying healthy food which is a key factor in people’s food choices. The handling fee will increase slightly to $1.50 per kilo of groceries, meaning that a Foodbank WA customer can still comfortably fill a shopping trolley with food for a family of four for $60-$70 for a week.  

The Emergency Relief & Food Assistance Hotline 1800 979 777 is open Monday to Friday 9.00am -5.00pm and is the easiest and quickest way to secure a referral to shop at Foodbank.