The Australian Government has decided to fund an extension of a collaboration between the dairy industry and Foodbank Australia which aims to provide 2 million litres of milk a year to Australians in need.

Minister for Community Services and the Status of Women, Julie Collins, announced the AU$300,000 injection into the dairy program this week. To date, the collaboration has seen over 450,000 litres of fresh milk go to charities around Australia.

Foodbank is the largest hunger relief organisation in Australia that works in partnership with the food industry, the corporate sector, governments and volunteers. Foodbank assists the charities and community groups of Australia to tackle the problem of hunger.

The additional funds from the Australian Government will enable Foodbank to source the shelf-stable UHT milk it needs to compliment the fresh supply. This will allow milk to be included in home food hampers and distributed to charities with no or limited refrigeration, particularly in remote and regional areas of Australia.

Foodbank Australia’s CEO John Webster said, “Our aim is for welfare agencies to be able to rely on us for all the key staples they need to provide balanced and nutritious meals to the people they assist. Milk is consistently at the top of their shopping list.”

“The Australian Government is a pivotal partner in our collaborative supply program which pro-actively fills the gaps of essential items not obtained via traditional rescue channels. We welcome this increased commitment to our dairy program and see it as a show of faith in the effectiveness of our partnership with food industry to address the problem of hunger,” Mr Webster said.

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