What is the Free Foodbank?
The Free Foodbank provides people in need within our community with access to a range of food and household items, including toiletries at no cost. Types of products available include:
Ready to eat meals, fresh & frozen.
Dairy products, milk, cheese & yoghurt.
Eggs.
Frozen food, including: meat, vegetables, meat substitute, sausage rolls, pizza.
Fresh fruit and vegetables
Non-perishables: cereal, pasta, rice, chick peas, lentils.
Biscuits, chocolate, lunch box snacks.
Tin soups, tin vegetables, tin fruit, tin fish.
Condiments
Spreads
Toiletries, toilet paper, tissues, hand towel, ladies sanitary products, soap, shampoo, etc.
Baby food, nappies, formula,
Who is it for?
The service is provided for anyone in our community who is experiencing hard times, pretty much for any reason. Members of our community come in to the free foodbank for all sorts of reasons, including: bill shock (when you are overwhelmed with bills unexpectedly), relationship breakdown, personal or family illness, domestic violence, having lost your job, and other types of financial hardship. Our clients include people from all walks and stages of life, including: students; the elderly; single, married, divorced; or single-parents; etc. There are no specific criteria to qualify to access the service, as we have learned through experience that hardship comes in many forms. The only requirements we have is that we expect you to treat the staff of The Kindness Collective with care and respect, the same standards they have for helping you.
What does it cost?
Nothing. It is completely free.
How can I access it & how does it work?
Simply come into our shop at 60 Mollison Street, Kyneton - right next to Ryan's IGA supermarket, and ask to speak with someone about the foodbank service. You will then taken out the back of the Op Shop (where the foodbank operates from) for you to be able to talk privately about the service and your needs. Alternatively, you can ring our office to make an appointment for you to come in and talk with one of our managers to explain how the system works.
We register you as a foodbank client on our own internal system only (a non-invasive process that does not require complicated identification, etc.), simply so that each time you come in we have your details already on hand.
To be fair to everyone and to make sure that there is enough food to go round, there are limits to how much product you can access in a certain period, however we do our best to make sure that your personal and unique circumstances are taken into account, i.e. a family with 3 children will have different needs to single pensioner.
What if I'm too embarrassed?
You wouldn't be the first person to feel this way and we completely understand. However, everyone experiences hard times at sometime in their lives and you needn't be embarrassed. We are here to help and we would hate for you to miss out on the support available to you for this reason. You will not be judged in any way when you come in to see us, and our management team and team of volunteers are specially trained to assist you. You'll find that some of the volunteers have had their own life issues and have previously had to access the foodbank or other local services themselves, so you are not alone.
