Huge boost for PICAL Pantry

PICAL’s food pantry has received a $57,400 grant from the state government.

The grant, announced last week will be used to run its food relief program, which has doubled since the start of the Covid pandemic. The cost per month just to supply the food is over $3500.

PICAL manager Greg Thompson said securing the money was a relief, as over the past year PICAL had grown to become the largest emergency food outlet in South Gippsland.

“We battled our way through 2020 – it was a very strange year. On New Year’s Day we got a phone call and swung into action taking food to Bairnsdale and Sale for the bushfires evacuation.
“The minute we stopped that, we went straight into Covid.”

Over the 12 months, PICAL jumped from providing food for 300 people per month to between 650 and 680.

“In September, we fed 790 people. The pantry started in 2008, and up to 2019 it fed about 10,000 people in that eleven-year period. In 2020, we fed 5458.”

Servicing and funding the massive increase in demand took a whole of community effort.

“We managed to get $19,000 funding from Bass Coast Shire Council and $10,000 from the Bennelong Foundation. Council also provided us with three staff for the last six months, through the Working for Victoria program.”

On top of this support, the local community rallied and Greg said the generosity “blew everyone away”.

“We normally receive around three to four thousand in donations, but this year, we got about $20,000.”

As demand, funding and donations grew, so did the army of people needed to keep the food operation running. PICAL started the year with 49 active volunteers and now have 115, becoming the largest volunteer organisation in the region.

Greg predicts the pandemic will continue to impact on the community, and this latest state government funding will help PICAL continue to feed those in need.

“The health phase of Covid has abated, but we haven’t even yet begun to see the real economic fallout. At the moment we’re running with full employment – some businesses say they can’t get staff – but what happens at end of summer, when local businesses have to lay off people? “Then, at the end of March Job Keeper stops, and the payments go back to the old level.

“I predict we will return to the peaks we saw in 2020, and it will cost well over $4000 a month to feed people.”

Pantry service

The PICAL pantry provides a combination of food hampers and pre-cooked, frozen meals to their clients. The hampers include a mix of packaged goods and fresh produce.

“We get fresh produce from our own garden and local supermarkets,” said Greg.

“We also buy packaged goods from Food Bank Australia at a discount rate."

An amazing team of local volunteers, coordinated by Steph Thornborrow, cook meals that are frozen and distributed through the pantry.

“At the peak, the team was cooking 350-400 meals a week. They ended up cooking around 8000 meals for the year,” Greg said.
“We try to make the food go as far as it can, and when people come in, we give them a week’s worth of supplies.”

As demand grew, so did the PICAL facilities. A training room at the centre was converted into a purpose-built dispensary last year, which also allowed the team to cater for more people. And Greg said another unsettling trend emerged.

“At the start of the year, about a third of the people we were feeding were children. By the end of the year, 50 per cent were children. That tells us that Covid hit families very, very hard, particularly single mum families.”

A helping hand

Greg said anyone wanting to support the PICAL pantry could do so by donating cash or packaged goods.

“Goods need to be newly purchased and within the used-by date,” he stressed.

“Package staples like flour, pasta, rice and tinned vegetables are in high demand. We use a lot of long-life milk and cereals, so they would be good choices for donations.”

Cash donations are always welcome. Unfortunately, the pantry isn’t able to accept home-cooked meals or raw produce from backyard growers.

Chair of the PICAL committee of management, Jeff Lloyd said PICAL would continue to support the community in every way it could.

“Along the journey of Covid, PICAL stayed open. We felt it was important and necessary to have a place where people in need could come for assistance.

"We have two philosophies. No one goes hungry, and we try to give a hand up, not a hand-out. Providing food is just the start of the journey to getting back on your own two feet,” Jeff said.

“We can help if people are homeless or fleeing an intolerable home situation. We can train people in basic employment skills – with computer, hospitality, horticulture, and barista courses.

“We are really going to focus on our horticulture training, and help people set up their own backyard gardens, so people can become a lot more self-sufficient. We’re an adult learning centre and receive subsidies to do that, so the training is either free or low costs.”