Baldivis grandma rewarded for Feed it Forward foundation

A Baldivis grandma who set up a charity that feeds thousands every month has been recognised for her hunger-busting initiative.

Monica Morunga created Feed it Forward along with fellow “Kiwi grandmothers” in 2018 and last month alone helped feed 12,743 families and saved 112 tonnes of food from going to waste.

“A few of us nans started meeting, and it kind of grew into this great big thing over a span of 18 months,” Mrs Morunga said.

She said one of the nans had a connection with food rescue organisation SecondBite.

“We thought we could go and collect food from Coles here in Baldivis,” Mrs Morgunga said.

“We were getting eight or nine trolleys of products from them to start off with, and we’d take it back to our base in Calista and share it out among the families that we knew of.”

Feed it Forward started collecting from a few local stores around Baldivis but has since grown to collect from 90 places across WA. The group now also has more than 300 volunteers.

“We’ve done all of this, right up to this day, with no money and no vehicles other than the resources of the volunteers,” she said.

Mrs Morunga received a $1000 prize from Pandadol’s Care Collective, which rewards those who work to help vulnerable people in the community.

“One of the nans nominated me for starting our group, and then I actually won,” Mrs Morunga said.

“They gave me $1000 in vouchers to use for myself however I like.”

Mrs Morunga is now looking for more food donors to join the Feed it Forward family.

Restaurants can go to the Feed it Forward Inc Facebook Page to get involved.