Volunteering that changes lives

How an opportunity to volunteer with Foodbank WA is beneficial for so many

As cost of living continues to rise we are now assisting up to 900 households a day. We couldn’t do this without the support of our wonderful volunteers. People volunteer for many reasons and whether it is to give back or to gain work experience, we appreciate them all.

For our volunteers from Boronia Pre-release Centre for Women, it is helping them to gain warehouse, retail, and customer service experience before their reintegration into the community. We are so grateful for their help.

Boronia Pre-release Centre for Women is the only minimum-security, pre-release facility for women which aims to offer support to low-security women prisoners preparing for reintegration into the community.

The pre-release program provides housing in an environment that closely mirrors life outside of prison as it attempts to allow for a less traumatic transition back to everyday life. Staff help facilitate training of the prisoners and try to arrange employment on their release in conjunction with local businesses as a measure to prevent reoffending.

We are very lucky to have ladies from Boronia volunteer with us on a regular basis. Currently, we have five ladies who do a variety of jobs which help them learn warehousing and customer service skills while contributing to the community.

We recently had the ABC come out to interview the ladies and Michael Henderson, Acting Superintendent of Boronia from the Department of Justice.

The Department of Justice have been supporters of Foodbank WA for some time now, not just in the volunteering space. We also get some great donations from their farms.

Recently we received more than 1.5 tonnes of Camelot cucumbers, grown at Bunbury Prison Farm. The yummy cucumbers proved very popular and were out the door quick as a flash.