Resilience – making it through FY20 in one piece

Week 2 of lockdown in Victoria and to say FY20 has been both challenging and rewarding, both personally and professionally would be an understatement for many of us. I witnessed unparalleled generosity, endured pain, faced setbacks and opportunities I never could have imagined and thanks to those around me, found resilience in every corner.

The year opened with the persisting impacts of drought, affecting many of our partners’ supply chains as well as Foodbank’s. With this came an increase in demand for food relief in regional Australia. Despite the challenges, we saw many of our food and grocery donors and corporate partners step up to support us, and not for the last time that year.

A meeting with Steven Cain early in the financial year led to a broader and more in-depth relationship across the Coles business, which has paid off in spades for Australians facing food insecurity.

The first of my spinal operations saw me in hospital and off work for 5+ weeks from July ‘19.

But with many well wishes, it was great to get back to work and, on the road, again in August, to meet with many of our great National Donors.

Recharged and ready to go again, I was back in hospital for my second and bigger operation in early October, followed by several more months off work.

I was welcomed back by the bushfires tearing through QLD, NSW, VIC, and SA. Our already depleted supply chain due to drought suffered even greater pressure. But again, our partners and donors rallied around Foodbank and the hundreds of thousands of Australians who rely on emergency food relief. As the fires grew and more homes were lost, we saw the biggest response to supporting people in crisis we have ever had (at least in my time). The public were queuing to donate product at our warehouses and offers of support were flooding in from not only our existing National Donors, but the whole food and grocery industry, including a terrific customer fundraising campaign initiated by ALDI.

Our calendar year numbers landed in January with Woolworths taking out the top spot as our biggest food and grocery donor for 2019! It was great to take a moment to celebrate this result off the back of all the work they had done in their distribution centres to raise awareness and divert products from landfill to donations instead.

I managed to fit in 3 weeks visiting several partners in both Melbourne and Sydney. Getting around with crutches took a bit of getting used to and certainly inhibited my famous double-thumbs-up but it was invigorating to just be out and about again.

Before I could make it to Adelaide and Brisbane, the COVID-19 pandemic hit our shores and it was back to working from home. Like many of us have now experienced now, working from home has its pros and cons. It has allowed me to recover further, but having now working in physical isolation for 9+ months, I am looking forward to my next chance to get on plane, stay in a different place, catch up with some of our partners and get some happy snaps (complete with double thumbs up!) celebrating their great support.

Since the pandemic started in Australia, demand for food relief has increased dramatically. This surge has been driven by new cohorts who have not previously needed emergency assistance, including international students, temporary visa holders, seniors and most significantly, the newly unemployed.

We also saw the havoc that panic buying wrought on supply chains across the country. Every one of our partners felt the impacts in some way and for the first time we had to scramble to find product to purchase in order to fill the gap where donations had disappeared. For the third time that year, the Australian food and grocery industry stepped up to provide additional support despite the enormous pressures on their own supply chains. Furthermore, the Federal Government provided incredibly helpful funding to enable us to purchase food and groceries at scale for the thousands of people suddenly struggling to feed their families.

We are still working with both Federal and State governments to reach those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, whether they are enduring the long-term impacts, facing Stage 4 lockdown in Victoria or caught in the new hotspots.

Although this year has been a very challenging for many of us, they say that “In every crisis lies the seed of opportunity,” and this has certainly been the case for Foodbank. Previously, the issue of food insecurity has been too distant for most Australians to empathise with the experience. But with COVID-19 knocking on the door and friends and family being made jobless overnight, we can now better relate to why Foodbank exists, and understand the need for everyone to have access to this essential safety net. More people in government and the food and grocery industry have become aware of our reach, resilience, and relevance in the sector and the broader community.

With all this in mind, we are ready for another challenging, but rewarding 12 months ahead. We will continue to work tirelessly with all our great partners to support the increasing number of people doing it tough across Australia - our neighbours, friends, family members, and most likely your customers, as well as ours.

If you would like more information about what Foodbank has made possible over the last year and what we have got planned for FY21, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

I would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the life of my father, John Davidson (a Coles institution), a community minded individual, who even up to his last days in March of this year was still working to support those around him and his local community. This certainly gave me a new perspective on the year that is passed.

Cheers,

Michael..

This year continues to be difficult for everyone in different ways. If you need someone to talk to, you can call:

·        Lifeline on 13 11 14

·        Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800

·        MensLine Australia on 1300 789 978

·        Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467

·        Beyond Blue on 1300 22 46 36

·        Headspace on 1800 650 890

·        QLife on 1800 184 527

If you or someone you know would benefit from emergency assistance, you can visit askizzy.org.au or visit the Foodbank website for access to food relief, foodbank.org.au.

Thank you again to all of our amazing national donors, supporters and the Australian food and grocery industry, as without you, we could not do what we do!