AN Australia-based nonprofit organisation is looking to set up food banks in Fiji as an alternative for families struggling to put food on their table.
Australian DIY Families Institute has been supplying affordable food and fresh vegetables to underprivileged families in Australia and hopes to replicate the program in Fiji and the rest of the Pacific.
Fiji-born institute founder James Fitzgibbons said he established the organisation in 2016 based on his personal lived experience as a single parent.
“I created the institute to provide a lifeline for other families navigating financial and emotional challenges in a family with a sole parent,” said Mr Fitzgibbon.
“I’ve had a lot of Fijians come into our shops to help and volunteer with our work. One thing I have noticed is that some have separated from their families back home.
“And it made me think about the families with a single father or a mother taking care of their children and in my experience, it is difficult to ask for help and ask for food. It is embarrassing.”
He said a food bank would assist these struggling families.
“We have two food banks established in Australia. The first food bank that we set up was in a very affluent area and we had clients that travelled from a far coming in to get food from the pantry.
“Every Friday, we give out a free fruit and vegetable hamper to 50 or 60 families. We have four or five people who receive the stock that we bring in from the supermarkets and start to make the hampers on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
“Half of the bags go to a poor region and another area where the poor and the rich are mixed in together.
“Every Friday, we pick up large trays of fruits that Coles does not use, and we get at least 50 or 80 kilos of fruits and vegetables from each store that we go to.”
Mr Fitzgibbons believes the concept could work in Fiji.
“We can partner with Fijian supermarkets who have expiring nonperishable or best before goods like canned food to fill our pantry.
“We purchase them and sell them at prices lower than what they are sold at the supermarket.
“For example, we get a can of tomato which is a best before food.
“We can sell it to our client for 80 cents or $1, which is a quarter of the price it would be sold in the shop.
“There is still a fee because it has to cover the cost of the operations and that is all.
“The best thing about this is it will be self-funding and will not require government funds.”
