Flood relief supports First Nation Food Security Project

Long before the devastating floods impacted Northern NSW and Southeast Queensland, the Indigenous Futures Foundation has worked in the region to support remote Indigenous communities through its First Nation Food Security Project.

The charity’s First Nation Food Security Project helps Indigenous Australians to live healthy lives by providing them with access to nutritious food and education.

Following the floods, the First Nation Food Security Project sought to step up its level of support, delivering meals to impacted Indigenous Australians across the region, including many who were forced to evacuate their homes and relocate to caravan parks. The charity has supplied more than 400 meals each week to the Chinderah Caravan Park and five Indigenous medical clinics in the area. 

This is despite facing significant flood-related challenges themselves. As a result of floods, the charity’s fleet of delivery vehicles were significantly damaged, requiring servicing to refrigeration units and motorised equipment that helps get more meals to more people in need. After the floods, the organisation’s volunteers had to manually load pallets of food into each vehicle, increasing the labour required by four hours in each food run.

Through its Flood Relief Fund program, Commonwealth Bank donated $10,000 to the Indigenous Futures Foundation to enable critical vehicle repairs and improve operational efficiencies, such as enabling a higher volume of meals to be loaded onto delivery trucks and out to communities most in need.

Levi Joel, Founder of the Indigenous Futures Foundation, said: “We’d like to thank Commonwealth Bank, particularly the branch team at Tweed Heads who we had the pleasure of meeting in-person to extend our appreciation for their generous $10,000 donation. The funds have allowed us to get a new hydraulic lift and upgrade our food truck to ensure meals continue to be distributed in areas where they’re most needed. While we are an Indigenous-focused charity, the meals we provide are for the entire community and we do not draw a distinction between those in need, no matter their cultural background. Without the bank’s support, we wouldn’t have been able to assist so many flood-affected victims across NSW and Queensland.”

The Indigenous Futures Foundation is one of more than 200 community organisations to receive a grant through the CommBank Flood Relief Fund, which is helping local communities recover and rebuild following the devastating floods.

Further information about CommBank’s Flood Relief work can be found at the website: www.commbank.com.au/floodrelief