Interview Highlight: Michelle Murphy - Bendigo Foodshare

Michelle Murphy, CEO Bendigo Foodshare, shares with Peter Greco fabulous news about a community funding boost from the Commonwealth Bank. This will make a real difference to the community in Bendigo and beyond. 

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Episode Transcript

S1 (00:13):
Let's talk about the wonderful work that communities can do,
particularly if they work together and go to Bendigo. In fact,
go to Bendigo Foodshare and catch up with their CEO,
Michelle Murphy. Michelle, really great to meet you and thank
you for your time.

S2 (00:26):
Oh, wonderful to be here, Peter. Thank you for having me.

S1 (00:29):
Now, as I said, it's really great when communities work
together and organisations get funded in a positive way and
you make good use of that funding.

S2 (00:38):
We do. Um, Bendigo Foodshare wouldn't exist without the generosity
of our community. Um, everything from our 402 volunteers who
are the real magic sauce, if you like, uh, through
to our community businesses that get behind us and organisations
like Commbank with their community grant that are just essential
for us to be able to deliver our programs.

S1 (01:00):
Now, recently, there was quite a bit of, uh, well,
both the individual funding as in number of funds, but
also the amount of money overall that was granted by
the Commbank.

S2 (01:08):
That's right. I believe we were one of 180 recipients
this year. Um, all grassroots organisations like ourselves who $20,000 grant.
It's just such a significant boost to help us in
trying to achieve our outcomes for our community.

S1 (01:22):
180 organizations that all benefit from it. And I guess
it's the sort of thing that, you know, unless you're
kind of either working in it as indeed you are,
or if you're impacted by maybe the stuff, the stuff
that's happening in your life, you know, you can be
a little bit kind of divorced or removed from it,
maybe not quite appreciated.

S2 (01:37):
Yeah, although I agree, Peter, but, you know, I would suggest,
you know, there's a real spotlight at the moment in
the media with the cost of living crisis on, you know,
food insecurity. And sadly, we don't do feed relief directly
here at Bendigo Foodshare apart from this new pilot, the
Commbank are backing us, with which I'm happy to speak about.
But the majority of our food relief is through partners

(02:00):
out there in community. Most of those are volunteer groups.
They're the real heroes at the front line, are distributing
food to people in need. And what they're telling us
is the amount of people coming forward. Not only is
it increasing, but it's from every corner of the community.
So people that would have once been very much removed
from this issue of food insecurity, are now needing to

(02:21):
put their hand up or come forward and seek help.
People that are working, even, you know, we're both adults
in the household, are working, but perhaps part time and
just not enough funds to go around to meet the
bills and to put food on the table.

S1 (02:33):
That's the really sobering thing, isn't it? Like you think, oh, well, it's,
you know, those people who are sort of down and
out on their luck. It's much more broad than that
these days.

S2 (02:41):
Yeah. You're right. Um, you know, we've got some demographics
that I guess, sadly, it's not surprising that those demographics,
single families, for example, that have for many, many years
been in need of additional support. But, you know, we've
never seen the likes of the numbers coming forward of
older people and people, you know, in two people, households
that just can't make ends meet, um, such as the

(03:03):
cost to live these days.

S1 (03:04):
I guess we all know a lot about what goes
on in our big cities. If you like, in Bendigo,
tell us a bit about Bendigo and I guess a
bit about, uh, kind of cross section of your community.
I guess you're just a, a big city on a
smaller scale.

S2 (03:16):
Maybe we are. We're we're pushing up towards 150,000 now
the greater Bendigo population and Bendigo Foodshare is our name
is a bit of a misnomer if you like. We
actually service all of central Victoria. So it's about a
19,000 square kilometre radius that we're working in. And unfortunately
people are experiencing food insecurity. Last time there was an

(03:39):
active living census undertaken, it was much higher than the
state average. So, you know, we know there's a lot
of people doing it tough in our community, but there's
also a lot of people willing to step up and
put their hand out, step forward rather, and do what
they can to make a difference. So whether that's people
donating food or volunteering their time or making a financial donation,

(03:59):
their generosity and community spirit is alive and well in
our community.

S1 (04:03):
What sort of areas are you covering then? I guess
we all know Bendigo, and I guess those of us
that like football in particular, we've had some good footballers
come out of Bendigo, but it's a bit broader than
that in terms of geographics.

S2 (04:14):
So we extend all the way up to the Murray River, um,
to Kyabram. We stand out towards Maryborough area of high
disadvantage across the great wine region, but also a lot
of people there in need of additional support and all
the way down to the Macedon Ranges. So we're bordering
on the fringes of Melbourne, our footprint. So it's a
really large area that we're seeking to support with food relief.

S1 (04:36):
Tell us a bit about this pilot program that, thanks
to the Commbank, you've been given some funding to kind
of undertake this. It sounds a bit more about that.
It just all rolled out, isn't it?

S2 (04:46):
Yeah. So this is something really new for the last
six months, through an organisation called the Open Food Network,
we've been able to participate in a pilot where we
were given funds to allocate the equivalent of a gift card,
I guess, out through community partners to people in need.
So we worked with the Bendigo Refugee Settlement program. There's

(05:06):
a Bendigo has the second highest number of refugees in Australia,
second only to Brisbane. And amongst the Korean community, the
word is getting out. It's a great place to live.
So we've got a lot of Korean people living here.
That's one of the food partners participating in the pilot,
and the other partner is the Long Gully Neighborhood Center.
So that's a fairly low socioeconomic area. So we're giving

(05:28):
them gift cards. Those organizations gift cards to distribute to
people they know are in need of a bit of
extra support. Those recipients of the gift cards are presenting
them at what we call our good food for all market.
It's where they're exchanging their gift cards for fresh produce,
locally grown organic produce that's been grown out on land

(05:49):
donated to us by young people, young people who are
learning the skills of growing food. So it's a beautiful,
I guess, circular economy, if you like, in that, you know,
whilst we've got young people learning skills, the produce that
they're growing is actually going to a really beautiful good
use and out into communities and to people that need it.

S1 (06:09):
It's really heartwarming, isn't it? It's quite moving when you
put it like that.

S2 (06:13):
It's really heartwarming. So this grant will enable us to
take the pilot, if you like, to the next step,
so will be able to give out up to 500
of these gift cards. We'll look at working with a
couple of additional services, including the local Homelessness service and
Aboriginal Corporation, and those cards will be issued by those organisations.

(06:33):
And that means more people can come forward. More people
can access fresh, locally grown food that our young people
have grown.

S1 (06:40):
Can you give us a bit of a snapshot of
what the locally grown fresh food is in the Bendigo area?

S2 (06:45):
Um, look, it's all the standard, you know, staple fruit, veggies,
I guess, if you like. We're growing potatoes. We're growing
sweet potatoes. We know our community in particular loves sweet potatoes, garlic, tomatoes, onions,
you name it. We're growing it. Corn. We're growing it
a whole range of fruit and veggies. The other aspect
to our pilot, I guess, and this is the really
exciting part about potential to make this a sustainable model

(07:09):
is that we're welcoming Bendigo people to come, or anyone
that's passing through Bendigo to come into our market pop
up store, which is once a week at the moment.
On Fridays we do hope to extend it to more days,
but full fee paying customers that are in a position
to pay. And I guess it's a bit of a
pay it forward model where full fee paying customers purchasing

(07:30):
that fresh produce will enable us to issue more gift
cards to people who, you know, don't have the capacity
to purchase. So that's our vision for this, for our
good food for all market.

S1 (07:41):
Well, sounds fantastic. And you kind of touched on the
community and everyone kind of pulling together. Did you say
400 volunteers? 402 volunteers?

S3 (07:50):
Yes. It is an amazing.

S2 (07:52):
Story that we have here. We know, and you probably
are aware that volunteering nationally is in decline.

S1 (07:58):
Well, that's.

S2 (07:58):
Why.

S1 (07:58):
I think it. Michelle. Yeah.

S2 (08:01):
Bendigo future bucks the trend. Not only have we 402
active volunteers, we've got 50 volunteers on a wait list
or 50 people on a waitlist to volunteer, and it's
just our capacity to put them through our induction program
that's slowing that up. So we've got such support for
our organisation. Um, and I think it just it resonates

(08:22):
at the cause Strong and. But what we're doing here,
you know, there's everyone can play a part in trying to,
you know, build a stronger community in the face of
some of this adversity.

S1 (08:32):
Well, I was going to ask you that being to, uh,
trying to be a bit too cute, but, uh, what's
the kind of secret sauce? But I guess it is
that community thing, and maybe your kind of big enough
for a lot of people to be knowing a lot
of things, but also not too big that people can't
kind of get lost in the crowd.

S2 (08:46):
I think you're right there. I think you're on to something.
The other thing is we invest a lot of time
and energy into ensuring our volunteers feel valued, and we
survey them annually, and we know that they feel highly
valued and that they're part of this greater purpose here. And,
you know, people come because they relate to the cause.
They hate food waste. They want to make a difference,
and they stay for all of those reasons, but they

(09:07):
also stay for the social connection. So such as the
social connection, we actually have two of our volunteers getting
married this weekend.

S1 (09:15):
Oh man, your story just goes on and on. Michelle.

S2 (09:19):
I don't know how I won't name names. I'm quite
shy about sharing that, but they met here at Bendigo
Future and they're off down the aisle this weekend.

S1 (09:28):
Okay. Well I'll tell you what. Every farmer wants a
wife and all those shows, so they're a waste of time.
You've got to be get volunteering in your local community.

S2 (09:37):
That's it.

S1 (09:38):
That's how you find love. And if you don't find love,
you find love for what you do, which is probably
equally important as well.

S2 (09:43):
Absolutely, absolutely. You're spot on there.

S1 (09:45):
Michelle. Fantastic. Thank you for sharing a little bit of
that with us. It's really good to know. And as
I said, the great that the bank also help out
with these funds. And I'm sure there's 179 other good stories.
But we thank you for sharing yours with us.

S2 (09:58):
No worries at all. Thank you so much for the opportunity.
And thank you to the the Community Grants Program. It's
it's just a game changer for grassroots organizations like ours.

S1 (10:08):
Well, long may you endure, Michelle.

S2 (10:10):
Thanks, Peter.

S1 (10:11):
Michelle Murphy, the who's the CEO for Bendigo Foodshare the
golden Square of Bendigo. It's a really good story and
I'm sure there's many others, but really great, Michelle, to
join us. And uh, as I say, may they fry
for many, many years to come.