At the end of March 2024, meal relief charity FareShare bade farewell to our temporary home at the Melbourne Farmers Market (MFM) kitchen in Alphington.
For the year prior, FareShare chefs and volunteers – including hundreds of corporate volunteer crews and school groups – cooked more than 120,000 meals for people facing hardship in the kitchen facilities MFM were kind enough to share with us.
An introduction to FareShare
FareShare believes that every Australian deserves a nutritious meal, regardless of their circumstances or location, and has been cooking free, nutritious meals for people doing it tough since 2001.
FareShare operates Australia’s largest charity kitchens in Melbourne and Brisbane, where chefs and volunteers lovingly transform rescued, donated and homegrown food (grown in our three kitchen gardens across Melbourne) into millions of delicious, healthy meals that provide dignity and wellbeing for Australians experiencing hardship.
Our healthy meals are given away to frontline charities such as soup vans, homeless shelters, women’s refuges, First Nations organisations and groups providing disaster relief.
We believe a homestyle meal shows that somebody cares and has an immediate impact.
Last year, with the aftereffects of Covid and the cost-of-living crisis raging, FareShare made the decision to undertake a major redevelopment of its Abbotsford kitchen to enable our chefs to cook up to 500,000 more meals a year.
But in order to undertake such a project, FareShare needed to find temporary facilities to continue our vital meal relief assistance.
Enter the Melbourne Farmers Market…
How the partnership between FareShare and Melbourne Farmers Market came to be
FareShare’s kitchen redevelopment could not have happened without the wonderful support of organisations like the Melbourne Farmers Market.
In a great example of community response – FareShare put the word out, and in no time, the MFM team were generously offering us use of their community kitchen in Alphington.
Right from the get-go, the MFM team were so supportive and happy to rally behind our cause.
“It was a no-brainer. FareShare needed a kitchen space and we had one,” Melbourne Farmers Market CEO Anne Duncan says. “We loved the idea of helping FareShare make an impact one meal at a time!”
FareShare’s CEO Marcus Godinho agrees. “At the time, the cost-of-living crisis was impacting so many people in our community. Demand for our meals had never been higher. We are grateful to Anne and the Melbourne Farmers Market for hosting us and making it possible to cook so many nutritious meals for people in our community experiencing food insecurity.”
Given the natural symbiosis, this partnership formed quickly. Before long, our chefs were working out the different types of tasty meals they could cook, ways to maximise production. and how to deliver the best volunteer experience possible in the space.
Then, on 27 March 2023, we held our first volunteering shift and cooked our first meals at MFM’s Alphington kitchen. These would be the first of many.
The impact of our partnership
Being able to continue cooking our meals and hosting our corporate and school groups was invaluable to FareShare and to the broad community we support.
All up, the use of MFM’s Alphington kitchen enabled:
FareShare chefs and volunteers to cook more than 120,000 nutritious, ready-to-eat meals for people doing it tough at the moment. · FareShare’s Schools in the Kitchen program to run 115 school shifts, teaching thousands of students about food waste and food insecurity. During this hands-on experience, students packed 31,625 meals and chopped 12,650kgs of vegetables. · FareShare to keep running its popular corporate volunteering experience, with around 200 groups volunteering in MFM’s Alphington kitchen. These volunteers packed 63,375 meals and chopped 13,650kgs of vegetables.
The feedback from these groups was glowing throughout.
“I will find more compassion in my heart and remember that there are people who don’t have a choice to have a meal when I don’t like what I’m eating,” one young student told us after completing their Schools in the Kitchen experience at the Melbourne Farmers Market.
“It’s great knowing that I’ve helped hundreds of people suffering from food insecurity in a way that they don’t have to worry about how they will get food, even for just one meal of the day,” another student said.
Our MFM friends also rolled up their sleeves and got on the tools for two rewarding shifts.
“Both groups commented on how brilliantly the workshops are planned and run,” says former MFM Managing Director Miranda Sharp, one of those who volunteered. Miranda was also our initial contact about this partnership.
“It’s so important to understand how every ingredient is maximised and goes towards the creative and tasty meal,” Miranda continues. “The round up of our efforts leaves everyone with a sense of satisfaction and achievement.”
It’s this kinship and camaraderie that made the year so stellar, and always about much more than a simple leasing of premises.
FareShare chef Emma James was one of FareShare’s main chefs at Alphington. If you ever walked past the MFM kitchen early in the morning, you may well have seen her whipping up a big pot of soup or preparing the kitchen for the volunteers.
“What a welcoming year it has been at MFM,” Emma reflects. “We couldn’t have been luckier than to find such a perfect space for our schools and corporate volunteers. We leave having felt very generously welcomed.
“Everyone has been so accommodating, even as we spread ourselves around the site! I’m appreciative of all the kind and friendly support. I will miss the open skies at sunrise, the little magpie family, and all who’ve made our stay so positive.”
The feeling is mutual.
“FareShare's dedication to turning rescued food into nutritious meals has been truly inspiring for all of us at Melbourne Farmers Markets,” says Anne. “We've been honoured to share our commercial kitchen space with them over the past year and witness firsthand the impact of their work.”
What’s next?
In early April, FareShare moved back to its kitchen in Abbotsford.
Our chefs and volunteers loved sharing MFM’s kitchen, but we are also excited to settle back into our permanent home and cook even more meals for people who need them.
The next few months will certainly be busy for FareShare… getting our chefs and volunteers acquainted with the new kitchen, learning new processes, streamlining our operations in our new kitchen and warehouse, onboarding new agencies etc., all while trying to meet the constantly increasing demand for our meals.
“With the exciting move into new premises, we extend our warmest wishes for continued success; it has been a privilege to partner, and we look forward to future collaboration,” Anne says.
Whether it’s getting our MFM friends volunteering in the FareShare kitchen again, working together on bespoke events, or helping each other thrive through knowledge sharing, everyone at FareShare is looking forward to collaborating more with MFM too.
As Miranda so poetically put it to us: “Let this be a new start, not the end.” Find out more about FareShare here and visit their instagram here.