Community pantry goes mobile with help from bank's bushfire recovery program

The ever-expanding Sapphire Community Pantry, which supplies budget products for residents, has received a much-needed funding boost from the Commonwealth Bank, with a $50,000 grant going towards a mobile pantry van, and the expansion of its Bega shopfront.

The pantry's Christine Welsh said the mobile shop will make regular visits to towns including Bemboka, which has seen recent monthly visits already, Quaama and Wyndham.

"We've had people in tears at Bemboka, because they thought they'd been forgotten after the bushfires," she said.

"The devastation there has not been as noticeable as towns like Cobargo, and the mobile pantry has been great for morale. It's a chance to gather, chat, gossip and get something nice."

Ms Welsh will be picking up the mobile pantry van on Friday before visiting Bemboka again this weekend.

Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn said the grant is part of a $500,000 investment in bushfire and drought hit areas of the South Coast who are experiencing a "really difficult year" amid an ongoing recession.

"I think the last six months has been a really good example of people working together in very difficult circumstances. There's a real sense of community spirit," he said.

Pantry volunteer Chris McDowell said the budget supermarket is growing so fast it is in desperate need of more space.

"We see first hand what they do here, and everything goes out to the people who need it," she said.

Fellow volunteer Jo Oaster said she was "absolutely gobsmacked" by the extra funding announcement, which saw the bank gift an extra $15,000 above the initial $35,000 grant.

"It is just fantastic they [the Commonwealth Bank] have supported us, because the community needs it," she said.

The bank's bushfire recovery program is expected to fund $10 million in bushfire recovery projects across Australia.

"While it's been about six months since the bushfires devastated areas along the NSW South Coast and beyond, it's by no means over for those affected," the banks' head of community investment, Nathan Barker, said.

A number of these communities still face the difficult task of rebuilding, something that hasn't been made any easier by the impact of coronavirus."