Caring for your food host: a guide. Clifroy Community Bank does something truly special.

13th October 2014

Fair Food has 67 Food Hosts across Melbourne Food. It’s really quite a strange concept when you think about it; somebody sharing a space at their homes for others (read complete strangers – at first anyway) to pick up their shopping from. Food Hosts make our strange but effective food distribution system work, without them Fair Food doesn’t function, plain and simple. So we have to look after our Food Hosts and to that end I’d like to share my guide to caring for your local Food Host.

When you’re picking up and you see your Food Host, say, “Hi” and introduce yourself.
Respect your Food Host’s boundaries. Walking into your Food Host’s kitchen, helping yourself to a glass of wine and starting up a personal conversation is generally frowned upon (unless they’re also a close relative or an old friend and even then…). Stick with the groceries first and let any relationship develop naturally.
If you are running late or forget to pick up your groceries, text your Food Host to let them know what’s happening and work out a convenient time to pick up. Remember Food Hosts worry about non-pick-ups and hate seeing good food going to waste.
If you are a serial box forgetter, consider going for a home delivery. Home delivery happens on Wednesdays and costs a very reasonable $6.75 to most Melbourne addresses.
A tip to newcomers and those sending an uninitiated friend or loved one to pick up an order that includes refrigerated items – don’t take the whole communal esky, it generally causes dairy and soy product chaos and takes a lot of detective work to reunite people with their missing milk etc.
If your order isn’t at your Food Host, don’t be tempted to take someone else’s, just call or email Sue or Hema at Fair Food and they’ll have your missing order delivered directly to you within 24 hours.
When you return your boxes for recycling – flat-pack them and put them out of harms way in a neat stack.
And once in a while when you see your Food host tell them, “Thanks” and perhaps at Christmas a small card would be nice or maybe even some flowers or a pannetone, they’re pretty good too.

If you have any stories about your Food Host – please share them with us so we can share them with others.