COVID-19 has devastated many Australian communities, but it is safe to say that Melbourne has been the hardest hit by the pandemic. As the rest of the country started to come out of isolation and restrictions were eased, Victoria was hit by a devastating second wave that continues through September. In those initial day’s stories came out about Melbourne’s public housing lockdowns that were putting already vulnerable communities under significant stress.
Colgate-Palmolive approached Good360 wanting to help the residents in public housing that had been hit particularly hard by COVID-19 lockdowns. Colgate-Palmolive generously donated 25 pallets or 24,000 tubes of toothpaste, 12,000 bottles of body wash and 3,000 bottles of fabric softener to go directly to residents in public housing impacted by COVID-19.
Julie Dillon, Vice President and General Manager, Colgate-Palmolive said “Caring at Colgate means we take action where we can and we look for new ways to serve our communities. As part of Colgate’s efforts to help stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus, protect those on the frontline and assist people impacted by the pandemic, our teams around the world are focused on providing essential health and hygiene products to healthcare professionals, emergency medical workers and the most vulnerable populations. Through our partners at Good360, we were able to make a difference to our local community affected by the COVID-19 pandemic by providing essential health and hygiene products to people in the Melbourne lockdown towers.”
Connecting the Goods
Good360’s Victoria Business Development Manager, Liz Henderson was able to connect Colgate-Palmolive’s amazing donation to Anglicare VIC to make sure the goods went to the people who needed them most. However, with such a large donation Anglicare did not have sufficient space to store the goods prior to distribution.
Liz was able to reach out to her contacts at The Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria (RASV) Jacqui de Kievit, Executive Manager, Strategy and Stakeholder Engagement and James Gilham, Sales Manager to organise temporary storage while Anglicare VIC distributed the goods.
Liz also worked with Good360 partner DHL who provided free shipping for all 25 pallets from Good360’s Smithfield NSW Warehouse to RASV’s Melbourne Showground.
RASV: A temporary home
The RASV has suffered a 90% decline in revenue since the COVID-19 crisis was declared in March. Melbourne Showgrounds typically hosts hundreds of events throughout the year but as social distancing restrictions and now stage 4 restrictions inhibit gatherings, they have ceased events on-site.
This did mean that RASV was able to offer a safe, secure, weatherproof, storage facility to allow Anglicare Victoria to accept the donation and distribute goods to people in need.
Jacqui deKievit, RASV Executive Manager, Strategy & Stakeholder Engagement said, “The Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria is pleased to provide Melbourne Showgrounds as a storage facility to assist Good360 and Anglicare Vic in their important work providing much-needed products, in these challenging times of COVID 19 restrictions, to Melbourne’s public housing residents.”
This is not the first time that RASV has been able to help Good360 and our member charities in January, this year RASV provided assistance by storing desperately needed white goods for despatch to Victorian fire victims during the Bushfire Response phase. RASV provided warehousing and personnel to store the much-needed products for Uniting Vic Tas.
Collaboration is key
Collaboration is a key element in helping Australians recover from disaster including bushfires to drought, floods and now COVID-19. By working together business donors and charities can have even greater impact and help Australians in their time of need.
We would like to thank everyone involved from Colgate-Palmolive, DHL, Anglicare Victoria and RASV for helping #makegoodhappen.
If you are a business with surplus goods or wish to make a purposeful donation, we would love to talk to you about how your stock can do good. Please get in touch today by calling (02) 8957 3600 or emailing at corporatepartnerships@good360.or.au.
