Fluctuating food supplies across Australia have a ripple effect on geographically big states such as Western Australia.
Throw in the chaos COVID-19 inflicted on supply chains and you have a perfect storm for delivering essential services to those most in need, which is something most chief executives of not-for-profit groups would lose sleep over.
Foodbank WA turned to the organisation’s corporate partners for assistance and canvassed other innovative solutions to keep pantries full.
Foodbank WA chief executive Kate O’Hara said corporate and community support helped the organisation to provide crucial support to vulnerable Western Australians.
“When COVID started to become a real threat and supply chains were broken around the country, in 2020, the CMEWA Community Support Initiative and other corporate and community funding, enabled us to continue to provide essential food and groceries for the most vulnerable Western Australians and prioritise our COVID response of ‘hamper only’ service,” Ms O’Hara said.
“We also formed new partnerships with government departments, welfare agencies, Aboriginal corporations, peak groups and business, which enabled funds to be directed to food purchasing so that hampers could be packed and distributed to metro, regional and remote communities.
“From April to October 2020, Foodbank WA distributed 33,515 COVID-19 emergency food relief hampers and 124,000 assorted food hampers and bundles/packs to people in need, through our network of charities and via a recently commenced Mobile Foodbank.
“(It was) an incredible achievement under extremely trying circumstances.
“Throw into the mix the challenge of delivering food supplies to rural communities, some outside of our established network and it’s a wonder sleep hit the agenda at all.
“Regional, rural and remote challenges are centred around transport costs.
“Our five regional branches act as hubs for the areas in which we currently operate, however, expansion is necessary to ensure we can reach those who need food assistance in other rural and remote areas.
“For instance, we do not operate our food relief services in the Kimberley and Pilbara yet, and we are not collecting to redistribute fresh produce that is currently going to waste in the growing regions of Carnarvon and Kununurra.
“In the future, we hope to be able to source from these regions and change our fresh produce supply quality, range and supply stability.”
The statistics around the cost involved in transporting supplies remotely are revealing.
The consumer price index (which measures the percentage change in the price of a basket of goods and services consumed) shows transport for the 12-month period to September 2021 was at 9.2 per cent and by September 2022 had risen to 10.4 per cent, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
“This means to service our regional branches we have seen an increase of 37 per cent to our freight costs since June 2020, although this figure does not take into consideration an increase in volumes,” Ms O’Hara said.
The organisation’s strong connection to corporates has ensured a relatively smooth delivery of services despite all the roadblocks.
“We have corporate support to assist us in tackling the challenges we have with distance on a national level,” Ms O’Hara said.
“From over east, Linfox, Australia Post, Primary Connect and Scott's Refrigeration give us a monthly allocation free of charge in bringing purchased and donated product into the state.”
Foodbank WA does not currently have local Western Australian corporate partners, which assist with low-cost or free-of-charge (where there are slots available, or an allocation) transport.
Of the 501 schools involved in the school breakfast program today, 189 are located beyond ‘visiting’ distance of Foodbank WA's branch network.
Third-party transport is used to freight non-perishable breakfast products to these schools up to four times per year, which is generously funded by state government and philanthropic support.
Sometimes, where the challenge seems insurmountable, it’s necessary to think outside the box.
For instance, in Kalumburu where the school breakfast program has been operational for 11 years, products are delivered by two transport companies and a barge service.
“The key to successful partnerships is to clearly articulate the impact their support will have on the community and how they can be part of the solution,” Ms O’Hara said.
“Corporates are keen to assist, and the solution must align with their objectives.
“ATCO are a great example of this, as they support our fuel costs for our Bunbury branch, which allows us to collect fresh produce from regional growers in the South West of WA.
“Arc Infrastructure is another example where we have partnered with them to support families in the Wheatbelt areas to ensure food and nutrition education can be delivered.”
Ms O’Hara and her team face the same issues every day: we live in a large state where the delivery of services to rural, regional and remote areas is a huge collaborative exercise.
“For us, it doesn’t matter if the service needs to be delivered in Kalumburu or in Two Rocks, we seek to find organisations to collaborate with to ensure our service will be delivered to the ones in need of our assistance,” she said.
“Nevertheless, there has been a gap for some time in the north-west, and the financial-logistical restraints have prevented us from being able to explore what the possibilities of expansion were.”
However, that is starting to change.
Since early 2022, Foodbank WA was finally able to take the first steps in realising the hugely ambitious plan to bring food relief to the north-west and to have a meaningful presence there, with two initial locations for expansion – Newman and Kununurra.
“If money and distance were no object, we would love to be able to have a Centre for Hunger relief in each region of our state, and hubs to support them,” Ms O’Hara said.
“That means we have hubs that both collect food and distribute food, as well as run nutrition education programs for all age groups.
“If money were no object, we would end hunger earlier than our goal, which is in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals – to end hunger by 2030.”
