Run a food or CANstruction drive
Donate Food and Other Essentials to Support Our Community Pantry
Communities at Work’s food programs operate at our two community pantries – Tuggeranong and Gungahlin. Our community pantries support over 20,000 people in need in our local community to access free and heavily discounted food, household products, and personal care items.
Since our pantries receive no ongoing government funding, we rely on strong corporate and community support through sponsorships, philanthropic grants, fundraising and donations, along with our food rescue program and supplies from Food Bank and OzHarvest, to stock our pantries.
We need your help to continue helping people! Demand for food has continued to increase in the last year, with around 700 households a month asking for food help at our pantries.
What to Donate
We will gladly accept donations of food (including gluten-free) and essential items for:
You can also download our shopping list of items we need (please remember gluten-free foods too) (pdf).
Where to Drop Off Your Donations
- Tuggeranong Community Centre, 245 Cowlishaw Street, Greenway. Mon – Fri 9 am – 4 pm.
- Calwell Shopping Centre, 7 Webber Crescent, Calwell.
- Cooleman Court, Brierly St, Weston ACT 2611. (Ground floor, near the elevator)
- Gungahlin Community Centre, 47 Ernest Cavanagh Street, Gungahlin. Mon-Fri 9 am – 4 pm.
- Gungahlin Village, 46 Hibberson St, Gungahlin.
- Gungahlin Marketplace, 33 Hibberson St, Gungahlin.
Organise a Food Donation Drive
Host a food drive and ask your colleagues, neighbours or friends to donate food.
We have a list of suggested food to donate based on what our pantry clients need. Please see our Food Donation Drive toolkit for tips and resources. Alternatively, you can phone us on 6293 6500, email socialprograms@commsatwork.org or use the Get In Touch button on our website.
If you‘re part of a larger group, have extra fun by running a CANstruction food drive. Have a friendly competition between each team in your organisation to see who can build the most creative construction from donated food cans and other essential items. Or collaborate and all work together! Set a theme and award prizes for the most creative structure, most cans, or healthiest food collected, etc. And of course, all food gets donated to our community pantries. A win-win!
During this winter our theme is ‘Cold Canberra, Warm Hearts’. So why not build a big heart with tinned food and fill it with other food items and essential products. How BIG is your heart? We’d love to see it!!
Make a Financial Donation
If you prefer to make a tax-deductible financial donation, you can DONATE MONEY directly to Communities at Work.
Communities at Work is committed to ensuring we continue to provide our essential food, clothing and emergency relief to everyone in the community who needs our help.
Your support, whether you choose to make a monetary donation, or donate food and other essential items, will help put food on the table for people in need in the Canberra region. If you’re unsure how to drop off your donations, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Our community pantries are open 9 am to 3 pm Monday to Friday and help people experiencing hardship with free and discounted food, assistance paying for medical scripts (capped) and other services, including information and referrals to other support services in Canberra.
Find out more about our Sustainable Food Rescue Program.
Click here to explore the different ways you can get involved with Communities at Work and support our local not for profit community services, through a range of options.
Get in touch for more information.