Mobil and Foodbank work together to help families in need

The Mobil team joined food relief efforts for families in need with Foodbank Victoria on two recent volunteer days. The volunteers served the local community on Foodbank’s mobile supermarket bus and packed food orders in the Yarraville warehouse during a time of high demand.

Foodbank is Australia’s largest food relief organisation, providing pantry items and fresh fruit and vegetables to charity organisations around the country to be distributed to vulnerable Australians. Foodbank rescues food from manufacturers and retailers that is edible but not suitable to sell and provides more than 70% of the food rescued to food relief organisations.

The mobile supermarket bus, a former Kinetic bus that has been converted to a mini supermarket, is loaded with stock including fresh fruit and vegetables and driven out to a designated location where community members can visit and pick up the items they need. This enables them to choose what they need in an environment similar to an actual supermarket.

Mobil team members, provided over 1,890 kg of food, which is the equivalent of 3,780 meals to 185 people that visited the bus that day.

“It was awesome to see the level of engagement the Foodbank team has with the communities they support. It was also very humbling to be a part of the process for the day and to see first-hand the positive impact Foodbank has on supporting people facing food insecurity,” said David Barker, Commercial Analyst.

“It was lovely to see the old Kinetic bus in bright new colours bringing a little relief to people who need it, and it was a privilege to be able to help in some small way,” said Herman Voorhoeve, Asia Pacific Fleet Contracts and Programs Manager.

The Foodbank warehouse volunteer day was also incredibly productive, resulting in the equivalent of 30,944 meals packed by the team for families in need.

The Mobil team worked on fulfilling orders for food items placed by charity organisations. They collected and packed the orders, which are then distributed to these organisations.