Australia’s largest charity kitchen FareShare aims to serve millions of nutritious meals to Queenslanders as they help with the bushfire recovery efforts and prepare for the impacts of COVID-19 but more volunteers are needed.

Federal Member for Bonner Ross Vasta MP said with one in five Australians experiencing food insecurity over the past 12 months, FareShare had supported thousands of families doing it tough.

“According to the Foodbank Hunger Report, one in five Australians experienced food insecurity and of those 22 per cent were children,” Mr Vasta said.

“FareShare has helped many families and individuals doing it tough in their first year of operation thanks to their volunteers, including many families impacted by the recent bushfires, however more volunteers are needed,

Volunteers are the unsung heroes of our community who sacrifice their time to help others and I am proud to champion their cause to make our community a better place.”

FareShare CEO Marcus Godinho said viral outbreaks and natural disasters had impacted donations and volunteer numbers to uncertain levels but they were still aiming to deliver millions of meals to Australians in need.

“It’s been a really tough year for us with the coronavirus and bushfires appeals so a lot of charities are operating in unchartered territory,” Mr Godinho said.

“We’ve got a growing number of people falling on hard times, who knows what the next few months have in store.

“We’re just trying to cook as many meals as we can- In our first year we cooked one million meals and we’re now hoping this year we’ll cook two million meals.”

For more information or to volunteer, visit www.fareshare.net.au/volunteering-brisbane