School plans to help get food on the table

The Million Meals in March campaign is hoping to raise $63,000 in one month to help provide one million meals to people and families in need.

To help raise part of the funds, St Liborius is selling My Local Biz voucher books for $25. Each book contains vouchers for more than 60 businesses and offers more than $1300 in savings.

For each booklet sold $5 goes to Bendigo Foodshare and $5 goes to St Liborius.

If the school can sell 2000 books before the end of March it will mean $10,000 for Bendigo Foodshare.

St Liborius deputy principal Alistair Stewart said the school got involved with Bendigo Foodshare to help families in the Eaglehawk area.

“Foodshare told us there is a big need for this type of support in the Eaglehawk area and we wanted to help fill that need,” he said.

“A lot of our staff are involved in social justice projects in the local community as are the student leadership group.”

Mr Stewart said Bendigo Foodshare provided packages to the school that helped them support families.

“We're able to get food packages from them on regular basis that help support our families at St Liborius and support our wider school community,” he said.

“Some families need that support but with that they come back to us and talk and we are able to give them more assistance.

“If we can connect with families on deeper level, they trust us and we have better relationship when working with their children.”

Mr Stewart said seeing children and families appreciate regular food on their table was like Christmas.

“Some families and students know they are doing it tough,” he said.

“In the first week, one family said it was like Christmas and were able to plan their meals for a few days. It is good to be able to provide that service.”

To order a My Local Biz voucher booklet from St Liborius, get in touch with the school.

“We have been putting the word out with the school newsletter and details will be on our social media soon,” Mr Stewart. 

In Bendigo, one in 11 people have trouble getting regular food on the table while in poorer areas it is one in nine people who need help.

At the end of the first week of the Million Meals in March campaign, Bendigo Foodshare had raised $6256.

Visit www.bendigofoodshare.org.au for more details on Bendigo Foodshare or the Million Meals in March campaign.