By Mikayla van Loon
A Yarra Ranges charity that provides food boxes right across the shire has received important funding to ensure volunteers can continue their work.
The Philanthropic Collective received its first formal donation from the Dandenong Ranges Bendigo Bank in late January.
Although the bank has supported the Yarra Ranges charity through its annual fundraiser Halloween on the Green for five years, the Free Food Program will now receive quarterly donations from the community bank.
The Collective’s treasurer Fabian Fillip-Gautier said funding like the $2500 is essential to the running of the charity.
“Even though we’re not paying rent here, we’re not spending any money on wages or infrastructure because it’s been provided, we have fridges and it’s going to cover electricity for a few months. So for us, it’s pretty essential,” he said.
“We do need financial support and it’s very hard to access financial support for smaller charities. It’s time consuming, and we all volunteer, so we all donate our time to every aspect of the charity. So having that support from the bank is just absolutely a game changer for us.”
Dandenong Ranges Community Bank Group senior business development manager Mick Spruhan said that is the role of a community bank, to support local organisations.
“It’s part of being part of the community. The community bank branches try to be very much involved in the community wherever they can possibly be,” he said.
The charity will receive another $2500 in April and Mr Spruhan said that way the volunteers and the bank know exactly when the money will come in.
“If we have it all done at the same time, then it gives everybody a bit of surety about going forward as opposed to us being a bit ad hoc about things. We want to make a difference.”
The Free Food Program started just over six years ago and Mr Fillip-Gautier said the growth in the need for food has been so great they have had to purchase new equipment and commercial sized fridges.
“We started with a free food program in one school and then it spread and then it spread out of the schools to families that were struggling,” he said.
Now the charity feeds up to 500 people a week, across 120 families in the Yarra Ranges and even so far down to Ringwood.
The food is all donated from supermarkets, bakeries and other businesses to put together food boxes of both fresh and non-perishable food for families, the eldery and the sick.
During the Covid-19 lockdowns, Mr Fillip-Gautier said many elderly people in the local community were seeking social connection as much as they were needing food, so the Free Food Program helped deliver both of those things.
“We approached them and we made contact because they were not looking for help, they were just surviving and we managed to create these bridges within our community as well,” he said.
“It’s getting nourished in your belly but also in your spirit and feeling that you belong. For a lot of people the help makes them feel cared for.”
