Our Free Food Project was started in 2016 and is ongoing. Its purpose is to provide fresh food to school students, families and community members. The program provides access to fresh fruit and produce to around 1000 school children, families and senior citizens across the ridge each week.
Program History
Andrew and Fabian Fillip-Gautier founded the Free Food Project at Sherbrooke Community School in 2016 and further expanded the program initiated by the Philanthropic Collective. The Free Food Project works on the simple universal premise of similarly run programs: ‘take what you need, bring what you can’.
This simple idea of offering, without judgement, to anyone who requires nourishment to simply take what they need, whilst also making it possible to contribute their own offering in return if in the position to do so, has resonated with the community.
Members of the Collective had identified a noticeable number of students presenting at school in the morning who clearly had not eaten the most important meal of the day, breakfast. Building on the basic framework on offer we recognised the importance of providing a safe, non-judgemental space to offer each student, family member and community member the opportunity to access fresh fruit, vegetables, bread and sundry items each morning. Our response is based on the understanding that students are better able to learn when nourished with freshly prepared food by loving and caring volunteers.
Up to 70 kilos of fresh food and vegetables are delivered by our dedicated team of volunteers to Sherbrooke Community School each week with fresh fruit on offer to all throughout the day. Further free food is also prepared to supply the free after-school homework club twice per week.
Donation
The Philanthropic Collective paid for all sundry items such as butter, cheese and condiments to the breakfast club at Sherbrooke Community School with a further donation of $1000 towards maintaining this supply in 2017.
Our Working Partnerships
None of what we can achieve would be at all possible without the support of our working partnerships. It is important to acknowledge these partnerships for their endless generosity towards ‘good will’ and community.
A full list of our partners, sponsors & supporters can found here.
