Your generous donation, along with those of other supporters, will go towards a range of programs. These all play a vital role in assisting at-risk vulnerable children and their families, single parent families and seniors by providing nutritious weekly care boxes of produce.

There are many ways that you can assit us in helping your local community.

Pay it Forward

When the recipient of an act of kindness does something kind for someone else rather than simply accepting or repaying the original good deed.

Donate Your Time

There are a multitude of ways in which community members can volunteer or engage with our free food programs. Below are a few volunteering pathways you may consider.

Centrelink

The Philanthropic Collective free food program is a voluntary work organisation registered with Centrelink.

For job seekers wishing to meet their mutual obligation requirements via voluntary work with an approved organisation, can register with Centrelink. Job Seekers, who are responsible for finding voluntary work opportunities, can now place applications with Centrelink and be referred to our programs.

Our Centrelink approval offers a further choice to anyone within our region which would like to utilize their time within our volunteer base working alongside our free food program volunteers.

Inclusive Community

The Philanthropic Collective proudly embraces all members of the community without exception. Our HQ at Olinda Hall is equipped with wheelchair access parking, entrance ramps and toilet facilities.

Collecting Produce

Every day of the week we have volunteers collecting produce from across our network partnerships within the region of the Dandenong Ranges. Our volunteers collect from large supermarkets to smaller local businesses. For optimal effective use of volunteer’s time, we work to match our volunteers to businesses closest to their home.

We also have a number of random one-off ad hoc collections which require a rapid response collection.

Loading Produce from Foodbank

Every Monday fortnight our crew arrive at Foodbank Victoria’s Dandenong South warehouse for our designed access and time of 10:30am. We welcome any dedicated hands to support our free food volunteers with the task of loading non-perishables and fresh produce into our refrigerated van and collection vehicles. Your assistance saves us time and reduces the work load.

Preparing Community Care Boxes

Our community care boxes of produce are prepared in advance of collections to streamline our programs. Community care boxes are prepared with what produce is available at the time of set program dates. Boxes are prepared from Olinda Hall every Monday and Wednesday from 10:30 - 12:30 as a general guide.

To further support streamlining care boxes for the proceeding program days boxes are prepared in advance.

(Monday programs prepare Wednesday programs and vice versa)

Delivering Community Care Boxes

Some members of community are unable to collect directly and require our care boxes to be delivered to their homes. A detailed packing order is provided with the most efficient route generally within a 5-kilometre radius of Olinda Hall.

Delivering Produce to our Sassafras Program

As the bulk of our produce arrives at our Olinda HQ, we require assistance once per week to deliver portioned shares of produce across to our Sassafras program. Volunteers are met on site by our food program lead and introduced to the drop off process.

Ensuring a Clean HQ

Working with produce requires us to adhere to a high standard of cleanliness at our free food program HQ. End of program hygiene volunteers are required to sweep and mop the space in preparation for the next program day while ensuring no produce remains unhoused securely. All cleaning aids are provided on site with an estimated time investment of 1 hour twice weekly.

Administration

General administration to forward plan our free food program flow remains key to our success. Our administrator coordinator volunteer role requires weekly record keeping of all recipients across set program days. Once varying collection time slots are confirmed follow up group text messaging and confirmation of recipients is required, weekly. For those members of the community which do not communicate via mobile phones or email a landline number is provided for follow up.

Back-up Free Food Program Volunteers

Should you have time on your side to support our efforts as back up crew volunteers please register your interest to offer support. At any given time our regular teams may fall short and that’s when we would love to be able to call upon you to lend a helping hand. We may never call upon you but just knowing you are there will ensure we take the pressure off teams bringing together our large program days. Back-up crews would be required on Monday’s or Wednesday’s from 9:00am – 2:00pm

Volunteer Training

You are not alone. All new volunteers are required to undergo a volunteer induction training process before you commence infield collection. This will include a site visit to your nominated collection point and introduction to staff and safety procedures. A volunteer’s manual along with branded vest will be provided.

Donate Vouchers

We accept any and all vouchers donated to our charity. Donated Vouchers should be made out to The Philanthropic Collective.

All donated vouchers are shared across our network program leads which nominate community members within each perspective program on a most in need basis.

We keep a register spreadsheet for good governance practice with our vouchers. Recipients sign and date against vouchers which we retain a soft copy on file for anyone to site upon request. If you'd like to donate a voucher please send us a message via our contact form on our contact page.​

Ways you can you assist helping your local community.

We accept all and any non-perishables, fresh fruit, and vegetables along with frozen or frozen meat items.

To donate Produce, Premade Meals or Your Expertise please register your donation via the form below.

To ensure a rapid response to your donation a volunteer team member will connect with you within a 24-hour time window to arrange collection. Collection of our donation can be accommodated within hours of your registration depending on quantities and donation collection point.

Should your donation be outside of the Dandenong Ranges special arrangements will be made to receive or collect the donated produce.

Donate Produce, Premade Meals or your Expertise.

Please complete this form if you would like to Donate Produce, Premade Meals or your Expertise.

Register your interest to become a free food program volunteer

Many hands make light work. We always need a helping hand and if you are in a position to donate some of our time we'd love to hear from you.