Caring cooks step up to help

The food-rescue group FareShare launched its much-needed new kitchen space late last week with a celebrity cook-a-thon.

Chefs Daniel Wilson, Benjamin Cooper and Ian Curley joined Fairfax contributor Dani Valent and former MasterChef contestant Alice Zaslavsky, among others, to cook up 5000 meals in 12 hours, including beef korma, chicken veloute and sausage curry.

FareShare started 12 years ago and the group's chief executive, Marcus Godinho, says the need for food for some people in our community is steadily increasing.

''Two years ago we were cooking 10,000 meals a week and we've needed to double that,'' he says.

The organisation has moved into a large space just a street away from its original kitchen in Abbotsford and the goal is to make and distribute 40,000 meals a fortnight.