A wonderful gesture from future leaders at Bega Cheese will see the Sapphire Community Pantry's offerings grow significantly.
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The pantry had refrained from stocking refrigerated items like butter, yoghurt, juice and eggs because the cost of cold freight from Foodbank in Sydney was prohibitive.
However, under a new partnership, Bega Group has offered to cover the cost of cold freight for monthly deliveries over the next 12 months - and potentially beyond.
The first delivery arrived on Wednesday, December 6, to cheers and appreciation all round.
At the pantry for the delivery were the five Bega Group employees who helped coordinate the idea.
Rowan Charnock works in Bega Group's IT department and said he and the others were part of a new internal leadership program.
He said around 30 employees were invited into the program, which offered them additional on-the-job learning opportunities.
"As part of the program we were asked to identify a community need where we could help out, either through our own volunteering or community connections," Mr Charnock said.
As it happened, Mr Charnock is friends with pantry board president Josh Shoobridge, who mentioned the issue of cold freight being too expensive to consider for the charitable organisation.
"Josh told us about the problem and I said we work for the largest cold chain company in Australia, so surely we can help with that," Mr Charnock said.
"It felt cool to be able to do something with the project here in the area that built the company."
Mr Shoobridge said cold freight from Foodbank was quoted at $300 a pallet.
"So you can imagine over a year that's $3500 just in freight costs, then add the cost of the products," he said.
"We are all about trying to keep the cost of groceries as low as possible, especially with the economy like it is today.
"This is fantastic," he said about the Bega Group partnership.
"The community response has already been absolutely incredible and now to have the ability to offer cold products to our community is amazing."
Adding to the positive news was that Bobbin's Transport in Pambula was right behind the deal too.
Hayley Driscoll from Bega Group's logistics division said the company already had Bobbin's on the road from Sydney with other cold products, and the trucking company offered to duck out of their way to Foodbank as well.
"And they are waiving their usual pickup fee to do this for us," she added.
The Sapphire Community Pantry is open 11am until 2pm, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and 11am until 4pm on Thursdays.
It is located at 2 Peden St in Bega.