Hi everyone 🙂 How are you? Hope you are all happy and warm at the moment with your bellies full. Today, we would like to do something different and open your eyes to a serious crisis in Victoria. We like most of you out there are strong foodies. We eat, we cook and we occasionally pay an exorbitant amount of money for a really good meal.

However, not everyone are like us. They aren’t that lucky. 

I first highlighted the good works of Foodbank Victoria back in 2011 during the Blog Action Day.

It is so sad to see, that in 2011 (when I first drew attention to it), that 300,000 Victorians were struggling to meet the cost of living. In 2 years, that figure has risen to 500,000!

Thus, Foodbank Victoria this June, has launched “Warm Up Winter” campaign, aiming to raise $100,000 for these Victorians struggling to meet the cost of living.

Foodbank Victoria is the state’s oldest and largest food relief organisation that delivers nutritious, healthy food to people experiencing hardship. David McNamara, CEO of Foodbank Victoria estimates that 1,725,000 meals will be required to feed Victorians doing it tough this winter.

He further went on to say, ““We have found that winter is one of the harder times for people to access regular, nutritious meals to keep them on their feet.”

Here are some stats:

• 526,700 Victorians are living below the poverty line
• Approximately 90,000 of these people are children
• 11.4% of people in Melbourne live below the poverty line
• 12.9% of regional Victorians live below the poverty line
• 29% of households in poverty had a wage earner as the main income
• 25% of sole parent households are in poverty

To help raise further awareness of this urgency, Foodbank Victoria has partnered with JMC Academy to create a series of 4 short films to launch the annual fundraising campaign. To assist with the production and filming of these short films, Hollywood film maker and producer of the upcoming Michael Hutchinson biopic Two World’s Colliding, Bobby Galinski was on hand to donate his wealth of experience.

The films highlight sad but true life stories of Victorian’s living in crisis from all walks of life who rely on food relief for a regular meal, including single mothers, pensioners and individuals, who after paying the bills, may have less than $20 a week to feed themselves. Not only do these films demonstrate the work that is involved in getting food onto the plate, it also highlights the growing need for financial assistance to continue to provide fresh produce to food agencies such as Foodbank Victoria.

How you can contribute and help:

• Visit www.warmupwinter.org.au
• Donate what you can to help feed Victorians living in crisis
• Share the short films via Facebook and Twitter to raise awareness of the work of Foodbank with the hashtag #warmupwinter
  
• Visit Foodbank Victoria to find out more