July 7, 2017
Every Friday about 75 of the region’s residents come to the South Burnett Pantry in Kingaroy to take home the necessities of life.
Jim Bennett, a pastor with the Christian Life Centre which shares the lease on the Pantry’s Stolzenberg Road premises, said the shoppers didn’t have to be receiving Centrelink benefits to qualify.
They sign in, receive a number and sit quietly – or browse the attached thrift shop, or enjoy the Lions Club sausage sizzle – until it is their turn to inspect what is on the shelves this week.
There are unemployed men and women, young couples, the elderly, pensioners, farmers and even some small business people.
They pay $40 for a weekly shop of meat, bread, fruit and vegetables, milk and eggs, frozen goods, dry goods, personal products and toiletries.
“We try to quadruple (the value) of their money,” Jim said.
“Depending on the week and what is available, it will be somewhere between triple and quadruple the value.”
And no one can fault the service – volunteers even wheel the purchases in a barrow out to the shopper’s car.
Nearly every week two people from The Pantry travel down to Brisbane to source goods from the Foodbank at Morningside and OzHarvest at Nudgee.
From time-to-time donations of foodstuffs also come in from South Burnett businesses, including Swickers and local supermarkets.
During July, shoppers who don’t use The Pantry in Kingaroy may be able to indirectly help those who do.
Woolworths has entered into a partnership with Foodbank to assist their annual public food appeal.
The Foodbank’s “Shop & Share” campaign will be matching donations of products from some of Australia’s top brands with customer purchases at Woolworths.
Shoppers at any Woolworths in Queensland – including the Kingaroy supermarket – will trigger a one-for-one donation each time they purchase particular products.
Participating brands include the Woolworths range, Ardmona, Devondale, John West, Chicken Tonight, Old El Paso, Vetta, McCain, Helga’s, SunRice, SPC, Primo, Mount Franklin, Continental and Sanitarium.
This means a shopper in Kingaroy can trigger a donation of the same item, which could then well find its way back to The Pantry.
