Short Term Operation ACT Food Drop

Volunteer
In response to COVID-19 Pandemic
Location Canberra View map
Status Complete
Dates September – October 2021

Kangaroo Island Resilience Project

The ACT Government established the Canberra Relief Network (CRN) as part of its COVID-19 response. The CRN was a cross-agency team with representatives from multiple ACT Government Directorates and a call centre operated by Volunteering ACT. DRA was the ‘logistics partner’ for this activity. ACT residents in need rang the contact centre and registered for food hampers.

Many ACT residents were in isolation as a result of being identified as a close or casual contact of a positive COVID case. This meant that many members of the community were unable to shop for groceries. On top of this, there were reports where traditional “click and collect” services were overwhelmed resulting in significant delays and cancellation of orders.

The ACT Government engaged DRT ACT members to deliver food hampers to specific residences around Canberra. Each day, eight DRA volunteers picked up food and hygiene hampers at a makeshift warehouse at Exhibition Park in Canberra (Canberra Showground) and used four vehicles worked in pairs to deliver up to 20 locations. Shifts started with a briefing at 0830, loading vehicles at 0900 and typically finishing around 1300. Deliveries were undertaken on Monday to Friday. All deliveries were contactless, with no interaction between DRA volunteers and residents.

View operations

DRA volunteers delivered food hampers to community members in the ACT in response to COVID-19.

Project impact

Time Icon 41

Volunteer days

Become a partner 35

Volunteers deployed

Become a partner 4871

Boxes of food

Become a partner 2365

Households helped

Service Project Adelaide Hills

Get involved

Planning for upcoming operational deployments is now underway. If you are keen to participate or find out more, express your interest today.

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