What it's like to volunteer at Bendigo Foodshare

And this is exactly what Bendigo Foodshare volunteers are doing - helping to feed central Victoria's most vulnerable residents.

Foodshare volunteers source, stock and transport 100,000 kilograms of food each month to emergency food relief agencies.

With the exception of Foodshare's one paid worker, the organisation is run entirely by volunteers, and on Wednesday, I was given a glimpse into what volunteering with Foodshare involves.

I arrived at Foodshare's industrial warehouse in Long Gully at 10am, which was teeming with regular volunteers, who had been busily stacking food for the past three hours.

Meeting me there was Wendy Learmount, manager of the Bank of Melbourne Bendigo branch, who was also volunteering for the day.

We were given florescent vests for safety and then it was time to hit to the road, to Echuca. Richard Betteridge, a dedicated Foodshare volunteer, was driving the van.

Richard said he had been working as a volunteer for emergency food relief services for many years. He said more people were facing food crises these days, due to the increased cost of living.

After driving the 92 kilometers to Echuca, we pulled up to an emergency food relief service run by Pauline and Jim Aitken, an elderly retired couple, who operate the service from their garage. 

Milk, canned food and vegetables were efficiently unpacked by a team of the Aitkens' helpers and soon we were back on the road, this time to Cadell Trading, to pick up some donated sugar, ice cream and bread.

Richard explained that, thanks to a $40,000 donation by the Bank of Melbourne, Foodshare will soon have a new truck, which will allow it to transfer greater amounts of food in a more efficient manner.

After loading up the stock from Cadell's we hit the road once again.

We get back to Long Gully at 3pm and are all exhausted. Being a Foodshare volunteer isn't easy, but is certainly it's worthwhile.