by Bonnie Collings.

As demand continues to rise, the Longwarry Lions Food Relief program is seeking more volunteers help support community members in need.

Program spokesperson Debbie Brown said the Longwarry service relied on the help of dedicated volunteers.
"As a Lions Club, we're only six members so it's our volunteers that help us keep this program running," Ms Brown said. "Most days I'd say we have about 10 volunteers in."
Operating out of the Longwarry hall, Longwarry Lions Food Relief opens to the community fortnightly on Fridays between 9am and 12pm.
Ms Brown said the number of people accessing the food relief service had increased in recent years.
"On our food bank Friday, we put between 100 and 130 people through (the food bank centre) in the three hours we're open," Ms Brown said. "Going back probably two years, we were getting about 60 or 80 people (come through the service). It's slowly creeping up."
As a charity partner of Foodbank Victoria since 2013, the Longwarry Lions Food Relief receive a weekly food delivery. The group also do regular food pickups from the Morwell Foodbank centre, local bakeries and locations in Pakenham.
They also receive meals from Frankies Community Kitchen and source a variety of fruit and vegetables from the Longwarry community garden.
In partnership with Drouin Rotary Club, Longwarry Food Relief also deliver around 56 hampers each fortnight to people in need who cannot attend the fortnightly opening.
"The majority of the hampers that we deliver are to Warragul, then Drouin," Ms Brown said. "The biggest thing that we're finding is that the people we're delivering to either don't have transport, or they're not well. Sometimes (people) do have a car, but they only have enough fuel for the necessary trips like taking kids to school."
Ms Brown said the food relief service is available to anyone who asks for help.
"We don't have any barriers," she said. "You don't have to be on a healthcare card or a pension card. If there is help asked for, we will help. As a Lions Club, we serve, and we help. We need to be supporting families. It's hard enough to get them to ask for help, that's one of the biggest issues that we have, and to get them to walk through the door."
Ms Brown said there were options available for people feeling uneasy about asking for help.
"I can meet them one on one, they can come down with a friend or I'm quite happy for the friend to come down (on their behalf)," she said. "We want to make it that people are comfortable asking for help. We make sure that whatever we deliver to people is in a Coles or Woolworths bag because that way it just looks like a grocery delivery."
Ms Brown said the food relief service needed more volunteers to continue providing support in the community.
"We're looking for volunteers that can give us a couple of hours a month," Ms Brown said.
"For example, on Wednesdays I go and do a pickup at Morwell Foodbank. I have a hand loading it up but then it's a tonne and a half of food that I'm unloading here on my own. If I had another set of hands, it could all be done much faster."
Ms Brown said there were a variety of tasks that people can help with on Thursdays before foodbank opens, including unloading pallets, setting up tables and chairs, preparing meals and organising shelves. The group also was looking for people who could assist with hamper deliveries.
"There's a job for everybody, many hands make light work," she said. "If we had three or four people (volunteering for these jobs), you'd only have to do it once a month. Even if someone can come in to set up the tables, that means that someone else isn't being pulled off a different job. I don't want people feeling as if they've got to be here every week, but if they can come once a month, we can share the load."
Anyone interested in volunteering can contact Debbie Brown on 0408 515 628 or at brown01@dcsi.net.au
As an extension to its food bank service and hamper deliveries, Longwarry Lions Food Relief provide a number of other supports for the community.
"We've added things (to the service) as the community wanted or needed it," Ms Brown said. "Whatever the need is, we try to meet it."
Part of the "Eat Up" program, the food relief services provides school lunches for disadvantaged students.
"At the start of the year we were making 320 plus sandwiches, we're now making 500 a fortnight," Ms Brown said. "Our volunteers make those sandwiches and then deliver them to 10 schools in the shire. It just goes to show the rise in need."
With the help of the Longwarry Baptist Church, a morning tea is held every second Friday in conjunction with the food bank Friday open hours.
"(The morning tea) has worked really well because a lot of the time (people accessing food relief), all they want to do is talk," Ms Brown said. "We'll say to them 'come and do your thing and then come and have a cuppa'. It's about being inclusive, connecting and being part of something."
The group also put on a weekly community lunch at the Longwarry public hall each Thursday.
"(The lunch) is all about mental health, connecting and reconnecting with the community," Ms Brown said. "We usually have between 40 and 50 people there, a real mixture of ages. We just recently had the Labertouche Ladies Group start cooking for us once a month. Everything they make is used in the (community lunch) and whatever we have left, we package up."