Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP) members and their colleagues have lent a helping hand to pick and pack nearly 40,000 meals at Foodbank Victoria’s Yarraville warehouse.

Twenty four volunteers from companies including Kimberly Clark, SPC Ardmona and Zipform Packaging spent the day sorting over 21,000kgs of donated food and groceries into meal packs which were then distributed by charities to the state’s most needy.

The Foodbank Warehouse Volunteering initiative marks a continuation in AIP’s long standing relationship with Foodbank and comes as the food charity faces having the federal government halve its staple foods program budget by January next year.

After a huge community backlash, Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday announced the funding would remain.

AIP executive director Nerida Kelton said this was the first day of the new initiative and more dates will be scheduled for 2019, with other states running similar events.

“The group reported back saying they had a sense of fulfilment and they enjoyed getting to work in a team with people they didn’t know,” Kelton told ProPrint.

“It was a real mix of people and a lot of them brought their staff members and colleagues along to join them.”

All together the group packed 21,459kgs of food, equivalent to 38,256 meals, which would feed a family of four three meals a day for about nine years.

Queensland based members can participate in a similar day on December 7 with Kelton putting out the call for donations and help in packing 1000 family hampers and 300 ladies packs.

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