Whittlesea Food Collective is an initiative launched in late 2019 by Whittlesea Community Connections and the Whittlesea Emergency Relief Network.
WFC supports people experiencing hardship with free food and material aid, help paying bills and accessing other services that can provide assistance. It also provides opportunities for people to volunteer and participate in community activities.
WFC is part of a broader project, the Whittlesea Community Farm and Food Collective, which is a partnership between Whittlesea Community Connections, Yarra Valley Water, Melbourne Polytechnic and City of Whittlesea




Our Purpose

To combat the increasing levels food insecurity within the Whittlesea region, WFC has four main objectives:
- Enhance community connectedness
- Improve health and wellbeing
- Create pathways to training and employment
- Demonstrate environmental best practice in producing and distributing food
What We provide
WFC provides different services that aim to develop a sustainable food relief program, including food production and distribution, plant and food-based enterprises, recycling and waste reduction and learning and employment pathways. We are here to:- Provide free food for up to 1000 households facing food insecurity
- Create training opportunities for 100 community members
- Increase health and wellbeing
- Enhance community connections
- Provide 100 people with volunteer and work experience opportunities
- Demonstrate food production and distribution models

- Food Distribution Centre
Demonstration Garden
Food Preparation
Community Education / Workshop
Why We Are Doing This




In 2015, 6.2% of households had run out of food and could not afford to more at least once. This number increased to 12.1% in 2016, almost double the number of households from 2015 and a small increase from 2014’s 8.9% of households. WFC aims to decrease the number of households that are experiencing food insecurity.
It is estimated that food waste costs the Australian economy twenty billion dollars each year. Five million tonnes of food ends up as land fill.
The number of people participating in community groups has decreased significantly from 2014 where it was 57.7%, to 49.5% in 2015 and finally 43.6% in 2016. WFC is working to increase this number by offering a large variety of volunteer roles to aid the overall mission.