A major donation from IGA Albany is helping stock shelves at Foodbank in Albany, with nearly 4.5 tonnes of essential pantry items provided to support people facing rising cost-of-living pressures.

The contribution of rice, pasta, flour and other staple foods comes as demand for emergency food relief continues to increase across the region due to the cost-of-living crisis.

Foodbank Albany manager Rod Pfeiffer said the organisation relies on staple items to help people prepare simple and affordable meals.

“When people come in they’re coming to make a meal for the family, they’re looking for a long-life meal,” he said.

“People get referred to us from emergency relief agencies so they’ve connected with an agency because they’re doing it tough or through financial counselling.

“They come in with a referral to us and it means they can access very low cost food to make ends meet and helps to put food on the table.

“We give away our fruit and veg and bread for free and it makes life affordable for people again, it gives them that breathing space.”

Mr Pfeiffer said the latest donation from IGA Albany and Metcash would provide a timely boost ahead of winter.

“We just had an awesome donation come in from our local IGA,” he said.

“The combination of them and Metcash put together a huge donation of four pallets of much-needed food for us.

He said rising costs are being felt across the community, with more people seeking help for the first time.

“The cost-of-living crisis is huge and everyone’s feeling the pinch,” he said.

“(IGA) see it with their customers that they help so they reached out to Foodbank and asked, ‘How can we help? What can we do to make it better for people?’

“We’re just so grateful that we can get extra help to put the food on the shelves to make sure people are getting the stuff they need to make a meal for their family.”

Mr Pfeiffer said the donation would make a tangible difference to supply levels.

“This is a massive difference — for us it’s an extra few tonnes of stock that we can get which means we’re going to have more staple foods coming into the winter season,” he said.

“Its a nice bolster for our stocks, which is greatly needed.”

IGA Albany store manager Doug Noakes said they noticed people struggling to afford staples and wanted to lend a helping hand.

“We know how short Foodbank are of the basic items,” he said.

“We contacted Metcash to see if they wanted to help out and we came up with a fifty-fifty donation, so we donated a couple of pallets (each).

“It’s going to help people in Albany doing it a little bit tough.”