Shepparton philanthropist Peter Copulos and family have stepped up with a generous $25,000 donation to the Greater Shepparton Foundation which has passed on the money to Shepparton FoodShare.
It is the second sizeable donation in a week, with the Fairley Foundation announcing it would give $20,000 to the food charity last week.
GS Foundation chief executive Cheryl Hammer said Shepparton philanthropists had approached the foundation wanting to donate and asking where would have the biggest impact.
“We have worked with FoodShare over the years through lots of different crises and so we have nominated them to receive these funds.
“We want the money to go to help both with this pandemic and for FoodShare's future recovery from this unprecedented demand,” Ms Hammer said.
Ms Hammer said the Copulos family and Fairley Foundation donations had been supplemented with a private donation of $5000, bringing the total amount received by FoodShare to $50,000.
Mr Copulos said his family had been proud contributors to Shepparton for nearly 60 years and he was pleased once again to be able to step up and help his community in a time of need.
“The local community has helped us build our successful businesses, and while many of our businesses are located throughout Australia, Shepparton has and always will be the base for our family and their extended families,” Mr Copulos said.
Shepparton FoodShare operations co-ordinator Grace Grieve said the money would help the charity meet increasing current demand, and would also go towards helping local restaurants and food suppliers continue in business.
“We've been incredibly busy in the last two weeks. We've seen a 70 per cent increase in demand. So a donation of this size gives us a bit of breathing space to continue operations.
“We now have some funds there to purchase meals from local restaurants and coffee shops that are part of our community. So it's a win-win for us,” Ms Grieve said.
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