Tragically losing his wife late last year to illness, Stuart Town local Ben Penhall and other volunteers have vowed to keep the village’s Foodbank operating as a “legacy” to her memory and to also assist locals in need of a helping hand.

The volunteer service was set up at the height of the pandemic to provide reduced price groceries and other goods for the isolated community 40 minutes north of Orange.

“My wife Pam established it in 2022 after we had formed an association for the town a year or two before; the Stuart Town Action Group,” Ben explained. “We then secured some premises which we rent, and Pam put the food bank in there… it was particularly busy towards the end of COVID.”

Operating on a similar model to the FoodCare service in Orange they are, however, serviced by a metropolitan-based not-for-profit that keeps them well-stocked with everything one might find at an old-style corner store.

“We purchase our food and other goods from Foodbank in Sydney — we order weekly and it’s all delivered to us here — canned food, fruit and vegetables, frozen food; basically general supermarket-type stuff.

“We also have a large range of personal care items such as shampoos, dishwashing tablets, and disinfectants and other cleaning agents; just like a mini supermarket,” Ben explained.

Without the national distribution networks of retail giants like Woolies and Coles, however, what you see, is what you get.

“We put a list out each week to our 80 or so members and, unless it’s there, we can’t get it, one customer keeps asking about tinned peaches, but we only have what we are delivered.

“We’re right next door to the hotel, the Ironbark Inn, and we’re open on Thursdays from 2–5pm and on Saturdays from 10am–1pm,” Ben explained.

As with FoodCare in March Street, there are often also seasonal donations from local producers to add variety to their offerings.

“We get a little bit of that from people with home gardens, fruit, or people who have too many pumpkins, that sort of thing; and we get frozen foods from HopeCare, a charity run by the Baptist Church at Bathurst.

“We also sell some knick-knacks, craft items, ornaments, plants, and a few other things,” Ben revealed.

The service is another illustration of how of country people in our villages and rural communities, help each other out in the hard times.

“Our customers are often people who work on farms, shearers, fencers, other contractors, if there’s no work, they struggle a bit.

“We also do ‘rescue packages’ of groceries and the like for people who are cut-off by flooded creeks, the SES takes the package across to them, so they don’t do without.”

Still mourning the loss of his life partner to pancreatic cancer, Ben and other locals intend to keep this invaluable service going as a tribute to her selfless work in the local community.

“My wife passed away just before Christmas and, as this was her initiative, people are keen to keep it going as a legacy to her,” Ben said.

“New volunteers are always welcome, always handy, we’re only a community of about 350 people, so every bit helps,” he concluded.