General News
22 November, 2023
MP calls out funding inequality
Member for South West Coast Roma Britnell has raised concerns for food insecurity in the region heightened by what she believes is inequitable funding of regional food relief organisations. In Parliament last week Ms Britnell called on the State...
Member for South West Coast Roma Britnell has raised concerns for food insecurity in the region heightened by what she believes is inequitable funding of regional food relief organisations.
In Parliament last week Ms Britnell called on the State Government to provide a commitment of ongoing, equitable funding to regional food relief organisations and the Regional Food Security Alliance to ensure country Victorian’s can be assured of necessities such as food when they are in need.
Ms Britnell said metropolitan counterparts have received regular and even recurrent funding from the State Government, “regional hubs such as Western District Foodshare do their mammoth work without the security of ongoing funding.”
Food insecurity affects regional Victorians disproportionately to people residing in metropolitan areas with 15.1 per cent of regional Victorian’s experiencing insecurity compared to 12.6 per cent in metro areas.
However, where metro food relief organisations have a greater certainty of funding and even recurrent funding from the Labor Government, regional Food Hubs must largely go it alone, relying heavily on the donations of the local community, Ms Britnell stated in Parliament.
She also took the opportunity to highlight the important work of Western District Foodshare which provides more than 62,000 meals a year to the region through food hampers to families and individuals, donations of food stuffs to local groups running community meals, and the provision of breakfast, lunch and snacks to many of our local schools.
“Without the efforts of Western District Foodshare thousands of people in the South West Coast would go hungry,” Ms Britnell said.
Ms Britnell slammed the Victorian State Government, saying “it breaks my heart that while your government presides a cost of living crisis, billion-dollar project blowouts and soaring power bills, everyday Victorians are finding themselves unsure where their next meal will come from and skipping regular meals”.
“South West Coast residents want to be able to afford to have a roof over their heads, feed their family and enjoy life,” she said.
“It is something that should be within every Victorians reach.
“Food insecurity is a very real problem in our state rising from five per cent in 2011, eight per cent in 2020 and a staggering 23 per cent in 2022.
“With the cost of living at crisis point in 2023, I am told that families and individuals who have never before had to rely on support from food services are reaching out to groups such as my regions Western District Foodshare for help to feed their families.”