Volunteers provide a tonne of help as demand for food relief grows

Fruit Rescue launched in November 2023 with volunteers collecting unused fruit from people's gardens and public spaces that would otherwise go to waste.

Volunteer crews reached the one-tonne milestone in April 2024 after collecting apples from trees in Koroit at the Railway Place, as well as a private property.

Fruit Rescue director and Warrnambool Young Citizen of the Year Courtney Mathew said hitting the milestone so quickly was proof of the need and benefits of the project with growing demand for local emergency food relief.

"We're so thankful to the people who have contributed to the success of this program," she said.

"It's been an amazing season with many friendships forming while we do something great for the community.

"It's hard to imagine what one tonne of fruit even looks like... but using the average Australian fruit price of $7.50 a kilo means we've redistributed more than $7500 of produce in the community."

Western District Food Share executive officer Amanda Hennessy said the organisation was experiencing an increase in demand for emergency food relief services, with five tonne more food distributed through their school and agency partners compared to the same time last year.

"With the cost-of-living crisis and financial pressure on households, we're finding that community donations are down," she said.

"Fruit Rescue has been fantastic with large donations of apricots, apples, pears, plums which go straight into our emergency food hampers and out to our community meals partners and schools for their fresh fruit programs."

The group's collection doesn't include hundreds of kilos of damaged fruit picked and shared with local wildlife parks and local farms.

The program, which started as a Leadership Great South Coast project, had a strong volunteer base with over 80 people registered to help pick the fruit.

Dianne Membery, who signed up as a volunteer in December and helps coordinate the harvest, said "picks" were flexible and usually lasted less than an hour.

And while the fruit season is starting to wind down, the team is investigating a community olive collection.

People would drop their olive harvest off to be weighed before receiving the percentage of their contribution as oil.

The program is planned for late May or early June.

Next harvest season they plan to deliver free preserving workshops to community members in the hope of creating a crew of people that could turn the fruit into a range of food products.

Anyone interested in helping should visit fruitrescue.org.au or call 0481 505 415.