Tuesday, 31 March 2026

 Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (13:43): Recently my team and I had the pleasure of supporting local charity Feed Me’s annual fundraising dinner in Queenscliff. Feed Me was started in 2019 by Lana Purcell and head chef Ant, who drew on their personal experiences to create an incredible service that now extends across the Geelong region. Feed Me’s foundation is food rescue from supermarkets and restaurants, and creating meals for delivery to people, no questions asked. They also run a ‘Take what you need, pay what you can’ mini-mart. There is no judgement, no intrusion – providing people with dignity and respect as well as access to nutritious food regardless of their circumstances. The growing demand for their service as cost-of-living pressures and family violence as well as isolation increase speaks to the failure of successive governments. I would hate to think what thousands of people in my region would be dealing with without Feed Me there.