Bega Valley's community pantries share the Aldi bounty

Reverend Michael Palmer, the local OzHarvest chapter co-ordinator, organised a roster of pickups from Aldi, which ensures that the three community pantries in the Bega Valley, Sapphire Community Pantry Bega, Eden Community Pantry at the St George Uniting Church and Sapphire Life, Merimbula, each get a share of the bounty.

This week the Sapphire Community Pantry in Bega was first cab off the rank, collecting on Sunday and Monday, president of the Sapphire Community Pantry Christine Welsh said.

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"We didn't really expect much given that they had just opened, but were overjoyed to receive bulk packets of bacon and sausages, soft drinks, cream, milk and other items," Ms Welsh said.

"The food will be distributed to people in need. As well, some of the sausages and bacon will be frozen and used for the free barbecues we have planned at the pantry in the week leading up to Christmas."

Ms Welsh said they were very grateful to Aldi, and all the other supermarkets and retailers - Woolworths, Coles, Big W and others for both supporting the Sapphire Community Pantry and for also supporting the diversion of good food and items from landfill.

"The work we and retailers are doing is part of a bigger picture. Australia has a $20bn food waste problem and community pantries such as ours are part of an Australia-wide effort to redirect or re-purpose 37m kg of food and groceries that would otherwise go to landfill," she said.

In doing so they are saving more than 81m kg of CO2 emissions every year and keeping waste from Bega Valley's landfill.

The donations from local supermarkets are valued as pantries rely heavily on Foodbank, which is effectively a charity supermarket. And while they do a great job, what they have in stock can be rather random and sometimes quite exotic (chilli oil, truffles, for example).

At the recent Sapphire Community Pantry AGM, Anne Ducray, president of Bega Rotary, Sue Jellis, past president of Merimbula Rotary, and Bec Fox, current president of Pambula Rotary joined the board.

It was something welcomed by Ms Welsh.

"Rotary have been a long-time supporter of the pantry, and having them on our board now is fantastic because they will bring their skills, knowledge, contacts and a co-ordinated approach to our activities and fund raising, benefiting the whole Bega Valley community," she said.