More than 13 tonnes of donations delivered to help feed farmers this festive season

Minister for Police and Emergency Services Troy Grant launched the initiative alongside representatives from the NSW Police Force, Fire and Rescue NSW, NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) and State Emergency Service in October this year.

The agencies joined with Foodbank NSW/ACT to spearhead the drive, which called on donations to be delivered to RFS Fire Control Centres across the state, and officially concluded yesterday evening.

Members of the RFS collected all donations from across the centres, and delivered them to Foodbank so they can start being distributed to where they are needed most across NSW.

Mr Grant thanked the State’s emergency services and the broader community for their generous support of the drive.

“This initiative was a wonderful example of mates helping mates across New South Wales, and as the donations are distributed over the coming days, we hope it offers some small relief to those doing it tough on the land,” Mr Grant said.

“We also know the festive season can be a difficult time for lots of people across our community so it’s incredibly heartwarming to see everyone pitching in to lend a helping hand. Thirteen tonnes of donations is a remarkable effort.”

Foodbank NSW & ACT CEO, Gerry Andersen said ‘Feed the Farmer’ is a fantastic initiative that showed support for farmers in the lead up to one of the most expensive times of the year.

“Feed a Farmer’ is an extension of our mission to assist farmers during these tough times of drought, and follows our distribution of 10,000 Food and Personal Care Hampers earlier in the year,” Mr Andersen said.

Mr Andersen said Foodbank is here for the long haul, and is committed to helping farming communities throughout the full recovery process.

“We are proud to work alongside our emergency service partners, collectively ensuring no farmer or community goes hungry this festive season and beyond,” Mr Andersen said.