26/02/2026
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One of Feed Me Geelongβs regular customers, known as Roger, visits the food relief organisation up to three times a week because he depends on it to survive.
But Roger doesnβt have the luxury of a car to drive him there, instead he rides his push bike from Bell Park to St Albans Park - a 1.5 hour return trip - because he says he βwould be in strife without itβ.
βThere are other services closer to my area, but nothing that compares to this,β he says.
βYou've really got to go through so many hoops to get a referral or a voucher from other services, so it's just easier for me to make the trip here.β
Feed Me Geelong, which is located in Westmoreland Street, joins Feed Me Bellarine and Feed Me Surf Coast in offering emergency food support, fresh produce, pantry staples and ready-made meals to people in the community who need it.
A team of about 150 volunteers donate their time to help run the St Albans Park site, which is open six days a week between 10am and 2pm, but operations lead Samantha Raybould says there are a lot more hours put in behind the scenes.
Feed Me Geelong are so busy they have outgrown their current building and are expanding into the shop next door to give them more space.
Samantha says her team welcomes around 120 customers through the doors each day, with up to 200 customers visiting during busier times.
βAnybody can shop here, we just encourage people to shop by donation, so you don't need a healthcare card and you don't need to explain your situation,β Samantha says.
βMost of the people who come here need us.
βWe open at 10am and most days we have a line queuing around the block at 9am, but we have lots of food to go around.β
Samantha says their market supplies are donated from Foodbank, SecondBite, Foodshare, and volunteers travel to supermarkets to collect rescued food.
βWe also do more than 300 deliveries of frozen meals a week as food relief packages, thatβs 2000 meals, plus 300 cartons of eggs, and 300 to 600 loaves of bread,β she says.
βThe meals are cooked at the Feed Me Ocean Grove site, and then we go and pick them up, bring them back, bag them, freeze them and then deliver them.
βLast year the St Albans Park site prepared 75,000 frozen meals.β
Samantha says the three Feed Meβs rely on donations because they donβt receive any government funding.
βThat's why we have the donation system here, because while we're so busy trying to keep these operating, we're not spending enough time out there raising funds,β she says.
βEvery cent helps us keep doing what we're doing until we can find more manpower to find other ways to get more money.β
Samantha says by visiting a Feed Me before visiting a supermarket, people can help save food from ending up in landfill.
Since January 2025, Feed Me Geelong has saved 342,814kg of food going into landfill, theyβve distributed 13,300+ emergency food relief packages, and welcomed 26,000+ through the market.
Feed Me will host a fundraising event at Queenscliff Harbour on March 21. Under The Bay Lights is an elegant black-tie charity dinner set against the backdrop of 360Q.
For more information, visit www.feedme.org.au/event-details-registration/under-the-bay-lights
