Successful recipients
We're proud to have supported 80 community groups across Australia since the program first took flight. In 2024, 28 applications were awarded funding, selected from a record breaking 1,700 plus applications across Australia.
2024 recipients
Deadly Hair Dude - To provide free haircuts to vulnerable First Nations people across the Darwin region.
Very Special Kids - To provide a free, safe, and reliable transport service for children and young people from regional Victoria to the Very Special Kids Hospice in Melbourne.
Emerald State High School - To assist with the funding of an annual humanities tour for students from the Central Highlands to Brisbane.
All Aboard disABILITY Support Services - To help establish a supported café for people with a disability to work, meet, and socialise.
Feed the Little Children Inc. - To help purchase a new vehicle for meal runs and the Full Bellies Outreach program.
Cape York Institute - To help purchase a new purpose-built truck for the social enterprise Mayi Market.
Eco Barge Clean Seas Inc. - To conduct 15 island clean-up trips of collected marine debris and recycling events.
LiteHaus International - To prepare and deliver 250 refurbished laptops to high school students living in regional, rural or remotes part of Australia.
Deadly Rugby - To help fund Indigenous employees’ attendance at on Country camps, including Indigenous Elders and Indigenous Cultural Ambassadors.
Tamworth Local Aboriginal Land Council - To enable 50 Aboriginal students from local schools to participate in a new project that will map, revegetate, and protect the Peel Wetlands.
Story Dogs - To fly volunteer coordinators to the 2024 Story Dogs leadership conference in Tweed Heads.
NSW Rural Fire Service - To purchase 13 new radio kits for the Lower North Coast District to ensure each fire truck and operational vehicle has a portable radio available.
Foodbank SA and NT - To procure additional food for distribution across Foodbank’s network of warehouses and Food Hubs in regional SA and the NT.
Reading Out of Poverty Inc (ROOP) - To provide literacy resources for children from low socio-economic backgrounds as part of the Book from Birth program.
Boort Resource and Information Centre - To purchase two electric mobility scooters for ageing members of the local Men’s Shed, ensuring they’re able to attend events and remain engaged.
Talk About It Pty Ltd. - To establish grief support groups and wellness gatherings throughout Cape York, and to expand the TAIT merchandise range.
BlazeAid - To bolster the resilience and efficiency of BlazeAid base camps, that can help rebuild communities following natural disasters.
Wild Horse FM Community Radio - To purchase quality recording and editing equipment to help celebrate the local community in Yarraman and record their life stories through the “Shoot the Breeze” program.
LYFE LANGUAGES LTD - To help four language champions create health care assets in local indigenous languages and to engage Elders in assisting with the translations and mentoring of youth.
Heartbeat of Football Foundation Limited - To bring 12 “Heart Health Matters” event days to 12 regional communities.
Earbus Foundation of WA - To send specialist clinicians into regional communities to help reduce the incidence and impact of Otitis media (middle ear disease) in at-risk children.
Holistic Avenue - To fund the addition of a full-time counsellor in providing free trauma support for domestic, family violence and sexual assault victims.
GP Lyf Hacks - To fund four health forums in South Australia for nursing and ambulance staff.
WE CARE 2 INC. - To purchase a tow vehicle for the Sunshine Van, a mobile service in Hervey Bay that provides hot showers, clothes washing and phone charging facilities for the disadvantaged and homeless.
Pat Cronin Foundation - To deliver Be Wise anti violence education programs in schools and sporting clubs across regional Australia.
CASPA Foundation - To provide equipment, clothing and education fees for young people who have lived in out-of-home care to explore Trade careers.
Wuyagiba Bush Hub Aboriginal Corporation - To help transport students to and from The Wuyagiba Study Hub (Bush Uni) in southeast Arnhem land, providing access to tertiary education on Country.
GreenSTEM Education - To purchase and fit out a custom trailer to transport STEM resources to young Australians in regional areas.
An example of a successful application in 2023: Eat Up Australia
Tell us about your community group or organisation. (150 words)
Eat Up provides free lunches to disadvantaged school children who would otherwise go without. After I read a local newspaper article about kids going hungry at school in my hometown of Shepparton (regional Victoria), I was shocked and immediately wanted to help. I pinched what I could from my Mum's cupboards - bread, cheese, Vegemite, and margarine - I bought some extra loaves and with her help we made 100 sandwiches for the 2 schools mentioned in the article. That was in 2013, today Eat Up supports 623 schools across Victoria, NSW, QLD, WA and NT, and has made and delivered over 2.5 million lunches to kids who otherwise would have been too hungry to learn. We've been able to scale our impact thanks to generous volunteers who give their time to make sandwiches for children in-need in their own local communities. This support extends across regional Australia.
How does your community group or organisation currently fundraise? (150 words)
Eat Up has a diverse fundraising mix made up of corporate sponsors, in-kind food donors, philanthropic grants, and social enterprise volunteering opportunity for workplaces. Eat Up's national sponsors include Accenture, Ashurst, ESR, Nook, Swisse and Xero. In-kind donors include: Goodman Fielder donate Wonder White bread. Peerless Foods donate margarine. Bid Food donate cheese and use of cool rooms. Chobani donate yogurt. Messy Monkeys donate healthy recess snacks. Philanthropic grant support funds broader operating costs and fresh fruit. In metropolitan areas, our social enterprise workplace volunteering has created strong team-building opportunities for major national and international companies like Amazon, Coles, Westpac, and many more to get hands-on and tangibly contribute to prepare sandwiches that feed kids in-need in the areas their businesses operate. Eat Up charges a fee for these workplace events and we are fortunate to have a growing waiting list for these opportunities.
What is your community group or organisation's goal or mission? (100 words)
Eat Up's mission is to feed hungry students so they can grow, learn, and succeed! Teachers have explained the need to us in very clear terms: When kids are hungry, they can’t concentrate, when kids can’t concentrate, they can’t learn. Linda Richards, Principal, Lalor East PS: Missing meals has a big impact on a child's growth, development, and learning - leading to fatigue, illness, challenging behavior, and poor learning outcomes. Many children come from homes experiencing financial hardship, substance abuse, violence, homelessness or are refugees. Hunger contributes to the disadvantage cycle, with children falling further behind their peers in school.
Describe how you would use the cash component of the grant. (150 words)
Cash will be used to: Purchase food-ingredients in remote-areas where access to our in-kind donors is not possible. Provide accommodation costs when training/onboarding new local teams/areas - targeting up to 8 additional regional/remote areas over 12-months. Eat Up supports 200+schools in regional & remote areas around the country. We're able to do this thanks to the assistance and collaboration of 20+ community organisations (e.g. Rotary/Lions Clubs, Country Women’s Association, Veterans Groups). Eat Up identifies areas of high need, liaises with local schools to quantify volume required, then connects with passionate local community groups who generously give their time to make & deliver sandwiches to schools in their own communities. Sandwiches are prepared and delivered fresh, in-bulk once every 3-weeks during school-terms. Teachers identify children in need, defrost, toast, then distribute sandwiches as required (with snacks we provide) in plain packaging, to prevent any potential stigmatization or embarrassment.
Detail how you would use the flight contra component of the grant. (150 words)
Flights to up to 8 additional regional Australian communities to train, onboard and support passionate local groups to feed hungry kids in their hometowns. Flight support will also allow us to engage local business communities more broadly in the existing regional communities we assist, i.e. for funding support and in-kind food donations (e.g. local fruit growers are critical to improve the nutritional value of our lunches). Eat Up currently supports hungry kids in collaboration with local community groups in: NT: Palmerston; WA: Geraldton, Bunbury, Esperance; Queensland: Cairns, Maryborough, Townsville, Bundaberg, Toowoomba; NSW: Newcastle, Orange, Goulburn; Victoria: Geelong, Bairnsdale, Morwell, Traralgon, Lakes Entrance, Warragul, Mildura, Colac, Bendigo, Ballarat, Mornington Peninsula. Regional areas of need that we would love to start supporting with the support of the Qantas Regional Travel grant include: NT: Alice Springs; WA: Karratha; Queensland, Emerald, Mackay, Rockhampton, Longreach; NSW: Tamworth, Griffith, Wagga Wagga, Dubbo.
Please detail the marketing campaign you envisage bringing to life across Qantas channels. Please describe how the national exposure will further your organisation's mission. (100 words)
With Qantas' help, we would create a video that can be used to educate and inspire various target audiences including government and community groups about Eat Up and how they can get involved. Additionally, the support would be used to increase the number of volunteers in regional areas.
Our vision is to ensure that no Aussie child goes hungry at school. To achieve this goal, we need to raise national awareness for childhood hunger. Increased national exposure through a joint campaign with Qantas would help us educate the public, funders, and Government about this critical social issue.
How would the grant positively impact the wider regional community? (150 words)
Growing up as a country kid, I was all too familiar with national programs that either overlooked regional communities entirely or offered a watered-down version of their support. Eat Up Australia is the only organisation providing free lunches to students on a national scale - both in the city and in the country. Eat Up offers a simple, cost-effective solution to a complex social problem: hidden hunger in the classroom. Eat Up works directly with locals in-need communities, no matter how remote, to feed hungry kids who would otherwise go without. Eat Up identifies need, provides ongoing funding support, and liaises directly with schools - creating a manageable, and sustainable opportunity for local volunteers to make and deliver lunches to schools in need where they live. Regular lunches: Improve student health & well-being, concentration, learning, and educational outcomes. Reduce stigma and social isolation. Feed 30,000+ regional hungry kids.
Is there any other detail you would like to provide? (100 words)
Our research has confirmed that there is a 28% increase in lunch support needed by the schools we currently support. With recent cost-of-living rises, natural disasters such as the recent floods, and increased food- insecurity, demand for our services has risen exponentially. Children who benefit from Eat Up’s amazing work no longer have to worry. Guaranteeing a nutritious lunch for children who would otherwise miss out has an enormous impact on nutrition & energy for the brain and concentration, and in turn, on the learning outcomes that are vital to our long-term goal of breaking the cycle of poverty and disadvantage.