00:00In the foothills of Perth, Athena Powell's makeshift food pantry is open for business.
00:08She opens her forest field garage to people in need five days a week and shoppers don't
00:14have to pay a thing.
00:15It's grown tremendously with so many volunteers, so many more people needing the help.
00:22A tough upbringing inspired Athena to start helping others in her community.
00:27I was with my sister, so I helped raise her from the age of 10, she's five years younger
00:31than me.
00:33We had nothing, we had no food, we were lucky to have a roof over our house.
00:40All the fresh produce is collected from supermarkets and producers and distributed to more than
00:45500 volunteers by grassroots charity Feed It Forward, which was founded by Perth grandmother
00:51Monica Moringa in 2018.
00:54We're currently saving about 70,000 kilos of food every week.
01:01We're feeding more than 10,000 directly with the help of up to 700 community groups who
01:09are also feeding the community.
01:12For single mum of three, Cam, the food pantry in her local suburb has been a lifeline.
01:18With retraining and not being able to work or wanting to get a better life, you've got
01:23to do it tough a little bit.
01:25With the cost of living and the rental crisis and stuff, there's not much left over at the
01:32end of the fortnight, so this has definitely been a godsend for me and my boys.
01:37The charity now has more than 100 local food pantries across the state, an increasingly
01:43important lifeline as costs continue to rise.
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