Rotary Airlie Beach has donated a month's rent to the Whitsunday Foodbank and is issuing a challenge to others to do the same.

On Sunday, 3 September members of the Rotary Club of Airlie Beach gathered at the Whitsunday Foodbank Proserpine to present a donation of a month’s rent to operator of the Foodbank Jeff Boyle. The club took the opportunity to make the presentation while the Rotary District Governor, Sabaratnam (Prath) Prathapan of Darwin was in the area for his official visit to the Rotary Clubs of the Whitsundays.

The Whitsunday Foodbank Proserpine is community owned and funded, and provides good quality food at affordable prices, with the aim of ensuring no-one in the community goes hungry. People who are pension, concession and health care card holders are eligible to access the services of the food bank. Operators of the Foodbank, the local family business owned by Jeff and Judy Boyle, cover the costs involved in running the foodbank, including rental costs and purchase of most of the food. The store is staffed by volunteers. No government funding is provided.

Rental on the premises occupied by the Foodbank in Proserpine is approximately $2000 per month. President of Rotary Airlie Beach, Jan Clifford, proposed the idea of donating a month’s rent to the Foodbank when she became aware of the costs involved in providing this service for needy people in the Whitsundays. 

Jeff Boyle’s family business owns and operates the Whitsunday Foodbank, as well as the Mackay Foodbank. 

"We have been fortunate in businesses we’ve owned and now we can give a little back, and with the generosity of groups like Rotary it puts a smile on people’s faces," he said. 

"Rotary donating one month's rent is wonderful; it allows us to get the staples that we have trouble getting."

The Rotary Club of Airlie Beach is issuing a challenge to other local service clubs, organisations and businesses to come on board and also make a contribution towards the Foodbank’s rental costs, whether it would be for one week, a fortnight or a month, and is about to undertake a local media campaign to issue this challenge. 

The club is hoping that its donation will encourage many more donations with the aim of getting the Foodbank's rental costs covered for at least a year, creating hope for locals doing it tough.