LOCAL LEADERSHIP IN ACTION: How Tarong West is helping strengthen the South Burnett Community
When the cost of living rises, it’s often families and children who feel it first. In the South Burnett, one organisation has become a lifeline for thousands of households facing hardship — and a new partnership is helping ensure that support remains strong well into the future.
The South Burnett Pantry has spent years delivering food relief with dignity, choice, and compassion. But the scale of need in 2025 has been confronting, even for long‑term volunteers. Last year alone, the Pantry supported 15,090 people, including 6,067 children — meaning more than 40% of all those seeking food help were kids.
Behind every “customer”, the Pantry reminds us, is a household. A single parent juggling bills, a couple suddenly out of work, a family thrown into crisis. In 2025, 344 new households reached out for help for the first time, over 80% of them reliant on Centrelink to get by.
This is where the partnership with the Tarong West Wind Farm project is making a meaningful difference.
Recognising the pressure facing the community and the vital role The Pantry plays, Tarong West has invested in the organisation’s sustainability project — a commitment designed to keep emergency food relief flowing, volunteers resourced, and families supported. It’s practical, long-term investment in the wellbeing of the region.
Every $40 trolley shop delivered by The Pantry provides up to $160 worth of food — groceries, fresh produce, staples, personal items, and other essentials. In 2025, the Pantry provided 5,085 trolley shops and 511 emergency relief voucher shops, making it a core pillar of social support in the region.
To sustain that effort requires stability: predictable funding, reliable partnerships, and community organisations backing each other. The Pantry’s volunteers travel daily to collect food rescue items from local supermarkets, work with local farmers, and coordinate emergency relief alongside support agencies. But meeting growing demand takes more than goodwill.
Tarong West’s support ensures that:
Emergency relief remains available for people in acute crisis
Families and children continue to be supported, not turned away
Community partners have a dependable food relief system they can refer clients to
The region’s long-term resilience is strengthened, not just patched together
This partnership shows what community-minded development looks like: not just building infrastructure, but working together to deliver meaningful benefits.
