Darebin Information, Volunteer & Resource Service (DIVRS) is a community organisation that connects people in Darebin to opportunity, community and support. DIVRS’s services, programs and information are free. For around 50 years, DIVRS has helped people experiencing personal and financial issues with information, referrals, support, advocacy, financial & bill help and material aid, including food.

DIVRS’s Urban Food Program promotes a vision of local food systems that are secure, sustainable and fair. Volunteers in the program grow and harvest fresh food in gardens and backyards across Darebin to be shared with people in the community experiencing food insecurity. On average, DIVRS supports 150 to 200 Darebin households each week.

The Darebin Fruit Squad is a community fruit harvesting project, also part of the Urban Food Program. A group of trained volunteers harvest excess fruit from registered households in and around Darebin. This fruit is then shared with people in the community experiencing food insecurity.

You can get involved by: donating fresh fruit; becoming a Fruit Squad household or picker; or volunteering in one of their community resource gardens to grow fresh vegetables and herbs to share.

Every Monday to Friday between 1pm and 3pm, Diamond Valley FoodShare provides free food to Banyule residents in need of emergency assistance. Around 50,000 meals are given out each year, and around 400 individuals receive meals in any given month.

People are referred to the FoodShare after visiting either Diamond Valley Community Information Centre in Greensborough Plaza or Banyule Support & Information Centre (BANSIC) at The Mall, Heidelberg West. Recipients receive parcels containing enough food for three to four day periods. The food parcels can be accessed twice each month.

Most of the food comes from the two major Melbourne-wide food relief organisations, namely Foodbank and SecondBite. FoodShare’s volunteers visit Foodbank every fortnight and pick up around 200Kg of fruit and veggies plus some pastries and refrigerated goods. They visit SecondBite every week and pick up around 80Kg of fruit and veggies.

They also collect donations from a variety of local sources with the collection points including five local Woolworths supermarkets, Foodworks Ivanhoe and Diamond Village and Diamond Creek IGA supermarkets. Spoilable foods are collected in a refrigerated van which was purchased with the aid of a cash donation from Watsonia RSL.

Read an interview from April 2018.