Help make a difference in your community.

Food For Families is a great way to get together to make a tangible difference to the lives of individuals and families experiencing hardship and crisis throughout the year.

Food For Families

We need your community's help to support people when they need it most.

When times get tough, bills stack up and savings can quickly dwindle, food is one of the first things people go without. A lack of food leads to poor health outcomes, making it hard to work towards a brighter future.

Sadly, the increased cost of living has made this a daily reality for many people who are coming to us for support.

As a result, all our emergency relief services are seeing a significant increase in people reaching out to us for help. Many have never needed assistance before.

As the cost of living continues to rise and a growing number of families are struggling to make ends meet, the right help at the right time can make all the difference.

When people reach out to us for food, we are able to talk to them about the issues that have led to their financial insecurity and link them into services such as financial counselling, housing support and family violence services. We want to help every single person that reaches out to us, but we can’t do it alone.

Whether it’s holding a food themed event or service where everyone brings in a donation, placing Food For Families branded boxes around your hall, church or building and encouraging your members to bring in donations holding a fundraising event, being a drop-off point for members of the public to drop off items or making a donation so we can buy the most needed items to stock our pantry on your behalf, we invite you to get involved today and help us help those facing hardship in our communities.

Together, we can offer hope to those who need it most.

Ways to get involved

Success stories

Food for friends.

For most of the past 25 years, the 13 congregations have generously collected food to support their local community. ‘Food For Friends’ as they call it.

“Of all our programs, Food For Friends is the one which brings together all our churches to remember Christ’s teachings about helping others.” - Margery, Mt Waverley Uniting Church

Food For Families has been running for over 30 years

The program brings local communities together to donate non-perishable food and household essential items through collections by schools, kindergartens, congregations, workplaces, community groups, individuals and families.

The food, gifts and household essentials are distributed at our emergency relief, family services and outreach centres across Victoria and Tasmania. Families can select food from our food pantry when times get tough and bills stack up. We also provide food that’s easy to prepare for people experiencing homelessness.

How it works

Register online today and we will send you out some Food For Families branded A4 sized stickers to use on your own boxes or bags. For larger collections, we are able to provide Food For Families branded boxes for you to use.

You will be sent some information and links to download resources including posters, suggested shopping lists and social media tiles to help promote your food drive.

Place Food For Families collection boxes around your building in the office, hall, foyer or church for people to place their donations in.

Once your collection is complete, you simply take the boxes directly to your local drop off point so we can start distributing the goods to people in need through our pantries.

For larger collections you can either email or give us a call on 1800 668 426 or email [email protected] and we will arrange someone to come past and collect your boxes.

News

Food for friends.

For most of the past 25 years, the 13 congregations have generously collected food to support their local community. ‘Food For Friends’ …
For 17 years, Murrumbeena Primary School has been helping those in need put food on the table. Each year the school donates …
When Louise introduced the Food For Families program to her students at Buninyong Uniting Kindergarten, she never knew how widely popular it …
One Christmas, Mary began collecting food because she realised that despite it being the time of year for giving, many people would …
Every year the family look on Uniting’s Food For Families website, write a shopping list and do a big grocery shop. Tami …
In 2019, 73 tonnes of food and toiletries were pledged for individuals and families thanks to thousands of generous supporters like Michelle. …
For many, Christmas time is deemed the “season of giving.” For the Academic and Medical Services team at Epworth HealthCare, the theme …
Eileen knows the importance of providing support to people in their time of need. “There are a growing number of people in …