Hornsby Connect has won a Community Grant

 

The project involves the purchase of a refrigerated truck to collect even more of the free food available from many local supermarkets.

 

 

Last year Hornsby Connect distributed over 100 tonnes of groceries, fruit and vegetables to more than 5000 recipients, who are local people in financial difficulty. We need a truck with refrigeration, so we can collect more of the free food, which is available from local supermarkets every day. In particular, we will be able to collect meat and dairy produce, these being essential in providing a nutritious and balanced diet.

 

Hornsby Connect has been providing this service since 2016, but restricted transport capacity means we only collect enough produce to operate our shop for 3 hours each Wednesday. With more food, we will be able to operate on more days each week, to support at least double the number of families in need, and also support other community groups who provide free meals to the needy in our area.

 

The new truck is the largest that can be driven on a standard car licence and will be operated by our team of more than 80 volunteers, supervised by our volunteer Operations Manager. The truck will enable us to visit more local supermarkets on a fixed schedule, on more days of the week, to collect more surplus stock. We intend to have the truck in operation by November 2019.