What’s happening in our
regional branches? 

Our regional branches have been a hive of activity, check out the highlights. 

We’ll start at the top with Geraldton. Their local MLA Lara Dalton has been collecting food donations and dropped them off a few weeks ago. Her office donations provided enough food for 70 meals which is greatly appreciated given the unprecedented level of demand the Geraldton branch experiences. 

The branch has seen record numbers of customers this last month – two consecutive Thursdays of 172 and 183 customers. That equates to a customer going over our scales every 2 minutes for 6 hours! Big thumbs up and massive thank you to the Scales volunteers. 

In Kalgoorlie, the impact of nom! sessions was evident when East Kalgoorlie Primary School students who had previously taken part in nom! cooking sessions, got back into the kitchen and honed their culinary skills to help fundraise to purchase food to donate to their local branch to help their fellow community members feeling the sting of the cost-of-living crisis. 

Since taking part in the nutrition education sessions, the year 2/3 class continued cooking various recipes weekly and sold their tasty treats to their school community, posting on Facebook to promote their sales. 

The class raised $250 from the sale of the food items and used the funds to buy donations for the local branch and were really proud to deliver bags of fresh and non-perishable food along with health supplies to their local branch. 

This amazing initiative followed lessons on the importance of volunteering and community groups. Thanks East Kalgoorlie Primary! 

Heading south to Peel, the branch recently had the honour of attending Energy Ahead Workshop, alongside Money Mentors. 

Energy bills are just one of the many stressor’s households struggle with when they find themselves experiencing financial hardship. The State Government, through the Western Australian Climate Policy, is supporting households in financial hardship by helping them reduce their electricity bills with the Energy Ahead program. 

The program offers a practical solution to reduce energy-related financial hardship by helping up to households improve home energy efficiency, which can lower high energy bills. 

We made a short presentation as well as held stall for people to come and speak to us directly to gain information about Peel Foodbank. Individuals also walked away with onions, potatoes and nom! Recipes. 

Next up we have a very sweet story from Bunbury. Branch Manager Leonie recently received a call from the staff at Regis Aged Care, Bunbury.  They told her that under the eagle eye of their chef some of the residents wished to make a treat for our customers.   

They made Apricot Balls & Chocolate crackles for us to gift to our volunteers and clients.  They even provided us with a list of ingredients and the recipe for our customers. 

Jumping down to Albany, a young girl who is a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church has contacted the branch to let them know that she is creating Christmas Cards (from scratch!) and will be selling them in the lead-up to Christmas, with all funds being donated to Foodbank. 

It’s kind gestures like this that really show the true meaning of community spirit.