Gavin Pearce (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Across the north-west, the west coast and King Island, our dedicated charitable and not-for-profit organisations are at the forefront of our local support network, and they're there in good times and in bad. This has become even more critical in recent months, given the extraordinary challenges for our local communities with the COVID virus, and our local charities and other organisations have really stepped up. Recently I teamed up with Rapid Relief Team, RRT, to roll out their family food box program across the region. The Food Box initiative provides immediate food relief for families in crisis. Each food box contains enough supplies to feed a family of four for around a week. Initially, I funded the purchase of 160 of these boxes, which RRT is currently distributing to councils and emergency and crisis organisations throughout the Braddon electorate. I'm delighted to advise the House today that RRT has now matched my donation, doubling to 320 the number of family food boxes available to those most in need. I can't thank Nelson from RRT enough for his support and Chris, the owner of CRE Transport and Logistics Services, a great Tasmanian freight organisation, for donating the transport of the boxes to Tasmania. RRT have been busy during the fires, the floods and now the COVID-19 pandemic. Together with other great charities, they make so much difference to so many people at the times that they need it most.