Interesting facts about Foodbank WA

When we talk about operations and logistics at Foodbank, we are usually talking big numbers.

To start, last financial year we provided 9.2 million meals to those who were doing it tough, distributing food and groceries through the 471 frontline charities we service and partner with.

In the same time period, we provided breakfast and fruit to over 560 schools feeding almost 25,600 children weekly and delivered nutrition education to 6,577 attendees including to children, people with disability, parents and adults.

Our Hunger Report published in 2024 revealed that more than 370,000 households experienced food insecurity last financial year. Close to 200,000 households experienced severe food insecurity the last financial year with 1 in 5 people facing days of no food.

They are all very big numbers.

Here are some interesting facts and big stats about Foodbank you may not know:

The largest freezer of all of the six Foodbank branches is in the Perth branch and holds 468 pallets. It is set at a very cold -18 degrees Celsius, walking in there is a better wake-up than a strong coffee!
In January and February this year alone, we had 913 tonnes of food that came into our branch either donated or purchased. To give you an idea of the volume of that, our largest truck takes 10 pallets of food which is equivalent to 6 or 7 tonnes of stock. This would mean we would need 152 trucks to move this food.

Our Community Kitchen is like no other in Australia. Besides being the only Foodbank kitchen in the country, what makes our kitchen different is that each week Foodbank WA’s Chef Grant is dealt the ultimate mystery box challenge, or in his case, mystery pallet. It’s hard to image but this means that chef Grant does not know exactly what he will be cooking each week and with what ingredients until sometimes the Monday morning he starts! Each meal is dependent on what is donated. To date, 533,681 meals have been prepared in our Community Kitchen since its inception in 2015.

Our incredible volunteers contributed 129,314 hours to assist us in the last financial year. This was achieved with 384 regular volunteers and 1,663 corporate volunteers. We couldn’t do what we do without our volunteers. Here’s to people power!
We work with charity partners to provide food relief to Western Australians in need. By working with charity partners there are wrap around support services available. Our charity partners will either shop themselves or refer clients to us so they can choose their own food and groceries. Almost 90% of our customers are households rather than charity partners.

Where does our food come from? We currently have 371 amazing and generous donors that range from transport companies, to manufacturers, farmers and growers, packing sheds, meat suppliers the list goes on.
Western Australia is vast, making travel complex and expensive. In addition to our 17-vehicle fleet of trucks that operate between our six branches in Geraldton, Kalgoorlie, Peel, Bunbury and Albany in addition to our Perth branch in the Perth Airport precinct we run our Mobile Foodbank service which has 44 locations. This mean that the kms certainly add up week after week and month after month. This sees our average kms driven per year to an eye-watering 316,900km. That’s a little over 80 trips across the country in a year!

If you or someone you know is struggling to afford food, please seek assistance by calling The Emergency Relief & Food Assistance Hotline 1800 979 777, Monday to Friday 9.00am -5.00pm.