Discounted food and household items are now available at a new food pantry that welcomed customers for the first time yesterday.

The well-known Wyrallah Road building has transformed in recent months from a second-hand furniture shop to a flood recovery distribution centre to the Good Pantry Lismore.

The project has come about through a collaboration between the Winsome Soup Kitchen, the Catholic Diocese and Foodbank NSW & ACT – the largest relief charity in Australia.

Good Pantry Manager Karen Willott told the Lismore App they had a busy opening morning on Monday and were expecting to get progressively busier.

“We want to help the people out there that are really struggling. It’s basically for flood relief. It’s for anybody who holds some sort of government card,” Karen explained.

“We’ve got a little desk where you come and say hello. You need to show some form of identification when you’re signing up. What we’re doing is creating a membership. That membership is totally free. Everybody will be given a card so that they can just come in and flash the card and go and shop.” Karen added.

“It’s $10 a bag. That may change down the track. That’s just how we’ve done it to get ourselves set up,” Karen said.

Cassie Bush and Good Pantry Manager Karen Willott

Present at the opening was Joe Pereira, Director of Communications for the Lismore Diocese, who described the concern about food security in the region.

“The diocese has entered into a 50/50 partnership with the Winsome and our concern is about food security in the longer term. The Winsome has done such a fantastic job over many, many years in the local community. We saw that, through what Karen is providing, it’s something we wanted to be a part of and so discussions took place over a number of weeks and what you have is the result you see here,” Mr Pereira said.

Cassie Bush is Northern Rivers Community Food Relief Coordinator for Foodbank NSW and ACT and has now returned to be a Lismore local.

“I’m originally from Sydney but I grew up in Lismore, as a kid, and now I’ve moved back up for this role. Foodbank thought it was vital to have someone on the ground, working with all the flood hubs and charity partners that we have. This is the biggest hub we have in Lismore,” Cassie explained.

“Before the flood, this building housed Karen’s business selling furniture but like everyone, she was affected by the flood and she wasn’t able to do that after the flood so she opened up her doors to create a flood hub for the community. She saw that there was a need and it has just continued on from there. At one point they had to close down, it just wasn’t feasible because they are paying a commercial rent and that’s when the Winsome and the Catholic Diocese came on board,” Cassie added.

Foodbank NSW & ACT partners with charities, organisations and schools to provide food relief to communities in need.

“By partnering with these guys and supporting the pantry, we’re able to offer a long-term, sustainable solution to food relief in the Northern Rivers. We source products – we purchase them, we get donated products – then we supply it at a low cost to the pantry and then they use a low-cost recovery method where they recoup their fees to keep it going. Foodbank has put the initial investment in and provided the stock,” Cassie explained.

“You’ve got main pantry staples like canned tomatoes, canned beans, spaghetti, tuna, long-life milk, a variety of pasta sauces. There are cereals, cleaning products, baby products. It’s a big mix,” Cassie said.

The Diocese has also added funds with some thanks to Bishop Homemings global influence.

“It’s a joint partnership between the Winsome and the Lismore Diocese and so we’ve been able to provide funds which were raised through the Bishop’s flood appeal. Because the Bishop has a profile, not just in Lismore but right around the country and around the world, we’ve been fortunate in getting donations from everywhere. We’ve been able to put that money towards important projects like this,” Mr Pereira said.

“Previous to this, the diocese was able to provide practical support during the fires. More recently, the floods in Port Macquarie, we were able to provide support there. The thing that brought our on-ground response in Lismore in the biggest way was in 2017 after the floods. Then we were able to provide mattresses to many people in the community. Whoever needed one got a brand new mattress. We were happy to provide that then and we’re happy to support this venture now,” Mr Pereira added.

The Good Pantry is open at 51 Wyrallah Road, East Lismore from Monday to Friday, 10am to 3pm.