Corporate partners make a difference
Each year presents some challenges but with the help of our committed corporate partnerships, we at the St Vincent de Paul Society Victoria (Vinnies Victoria) continue to provide vital services to the most vulnerable in our community.
 

Vinnies are grateful to all our generous corporate and business partners who continue to assist and help us to make a real impact on the community.

When values and expertise are aligned opportunities for long-term partnerships are created. Our partners are always rising to the occasion to support our services in times of great need and we look forward to what we can achieve together with their support in the future!

 

Christmas is always a time of giving and our corporate partners brought Christmas joy to many:

 

Lombard: Adding joy to Christmas

Can you guess how many hampers  our Vannies packed in just one day leading up to Christmas last year? 700. Yes, 700 hampers!

At the moment, our donations go very much towards buying essential food items for Victorians who are sleeping rough, in caravan parks or have limited cooking facilities. Sadly, these hampers don’t include highly-valued items during this time of year, like Christmas treats or Christmas Gifts. 

That’s where our amazing supporters come in. Claude Lombard OAM – OAM from Lombard Party and Events – came to our assistance with a donation of 700 Christmas bonbons to fill these hampers! Special items like these bring so much joy to the people we assist. 

Claude also supported our 2021 Vinnies CEO Sleepout and raised well above his target. We’re so grateful for Claude, and the entire team at Lombard The Paper people for their kindness and compassion.

Carman’s:
An oat bar can go a long way 

Last year we reached out to Carman's Kitchen to see if they could bring some magic to our Vinnies Soup Van hampers last Christmas – and they delivered! 

Thanks to their generous donation our Vannies were able to add around an extra 5,000 Christmas treats to our Vinnies hampers for our families! 

Toni from the Carman’s Kitchen team said: “We are so delighted to be able to help support Vinnies Christmas Hampers”. Carman’s is renowned for their quality and nutritious snacks which are packed into our hampers by volunteers like Gareth (pictured). 

Thank you Carman’s for enabling us to make our Soup Van hampers that little bit extra special for our Victorians in need.

Woodards: Rallying around a cause 

Christmas may seem like it happened so long ago, but here at Vinnies we still feel the positive impact of Woodards who came to our rescue just before the festive season.

With our Inner City Soup Van operations moving to a temporary location and less number of volunteers available at this time of year, Woodards stepped in and offered to not only feed our friends on the street, but also arranged delivery of essential food items, offered their work space for the packing of hampers and galvanised their staff to give a few hours of their day to help pack rough sleeper bags. 

All of this during the few precious days before Christmas! As Soup Van State President Melissa Walton said: “It was perfect to have had the 800 rough sleeper packs ready to go and in boxes so we could easily deliver to the inner-city vans and distribute [to people who needed it] leading up to Christmas”.  

Woodards also donated food treats so we had something a little different to the typical rough sleeper pack for hungry Melbournians who don’t get to celebrate a traditional Christmas meal. It’s a pretty special thing to see a workplace like Woodards rally around a cause. 

FareShare: Rescue, cook and support 

Research shows that very year, a staggering 312 kg of food – per person – goes to waste in Australia*. Yet despite this, there are thousands of Victorians who go hungry every day. 
 

FareShare supports our Inner City and Footscray Soup Vans with 1,500 FareShare meals each week, which are packed into hampers by Vinnies volunteers. They rescue surplus, quality food from supermarkets, farmers and other businesses that would otherwise go to waste, and cooks free, nutritious meals for people doing it tough. 

People accessing our Vinnies Inner City and Footscray Soup Vans services can choose FareShare meals along with essential pantry staples, fresh fruit and veggies, which are provided by our generous Vinnies donors. 

Vinnies Soup Van State President Melissa Walton says: “The people we serve like the FareShare meals so much, not only because of the convenience, but because of the ingredients – in particular the meat options – which they may not be able to afford themselves.”

A big thank you to FareShare for another year of valued support in helping provide Victorians in need with nutritious meals! 

*The National Food Waste Strategy Feasibility Study, by Food Innovation Australia Limited