Mr Peric brings a wealth of experience managing community initiatives to the role, being responsible for 150 volunteers in his capacity as senior pastor at the Encounter Christian Church in Shepparton.
His immediate goal as director is to secure the necessary funding to match the exponential growth the organisation has experienced over the past few years.
“I've been here for four weeks now and already I can just tell how much the community is behind this organisation and just willing to do whatever they can to make sure it keeps running,” Mr Peric said.
“We've got land donated, we had a $600,000 donation from the Federal Government and a few other donations that have come through.
“So we're on our way to being able to build our new building.
“Now it's just about getting the council approval and then getting the money in, and hopefully mid-2023 we can have a new building and move into there.”
The biggest challenges are securing steady funding to meet the costs of the growing organisation.
FoodShare has no source of revenue and is reliant on the generosity of the community and the occasional government grant to stay operational.
“We recently received some funding from the government but still need to work on getting more just for operational costs and things like that,” Mr Peric said.
The donation of land to FoodShare gave it the leverage to secure the $600,000 in funding for the construction of its new home.
The appointment of Mr Peric should help FoodShare in its efforts to lobby the Victorian Government for additional funding to guarantee the sustainable future of this critical food relief service.
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