Shellharbour City Council has established a food hub at the Shellharbour Civic Centre to help residents affected by the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Shellharbour Food Hub initiative is a partnership with OzHarvest, NSW Health and Healthy Cities Illawarra / Food Fairness Illawarra. OzHarvest collects quality excess food from commercial outlets and delivers it directly to more than 1300 charities supporting people in need across the country.

The program includes a weekly food drop off to the Civic Centre by OzHarvest, Australia’s leading food rescue organisation. Shellharbour City Council staff are responsible for packaging up and distributing food parcels to local community organisations and charities.

About 60 food parcels will be put together this week. Each will include a selection of fruit, veg, meat/eggs, baked goods and a few treats. The parcels will be distributed to families through the three local neighbourhood centres – Warilla, Albion Park and Albion Park Rail.

The quantity and types of foods will vary but will typically include a combination of perishable and non-perishable foods from Woolworths, Coles and ALDI and a range of other smaller businesses.

Shellharbour Mayor Councillor Marianne Saliba said the initiative would benefit many families who were doing it tough financially as a result of the economic effect of COVID-19.

“This pandemic has had a detrimental effect on so many people financially. People have lost jobs or have been living on a reduced income. This includes many families who are finding themselves in this position for the first time in their lives,” Cr Saliba said.

“Our Council wanted to do something meaningful to help our community. Many families are finding it difficult to make ends meet at the moment so establishing the Shellharbour Food Hub and using the Civic Centre as a staging area for food deliveries and packaging was something practical that we could do.”

Cr Saliba said the program was also providing meaningful work for Council staff whose tasks had changed due to COVID-19.

“Our Council has done a wonderful job of transitioning as many staff as possible to working from home arrangements. However, a very small number of staff have been affected by changes to their work due to COVID-19 so it is great to have them involved with this initiative,” she said.

People who are interested in the program can contact Shellharbour City Council’s Manager Community Life, Bonnie Hittmann, at bonnie.hittmann@shellharbour.nsw.gov.au or on 4221 6237.

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