So much more than a donation
Why your donation matters
Helping Hands is a local not-for-profit organisation supporting families across Melbourne’s north-west. Through the generosity of people like you, we operate three Op Shops that help fund our Emergency Food Relief and Material Aid programs.
We don’t receive government funding—our lifeline is the support of the community. Your donation helps provide food, furniture, and essentials to local families doing it tough. Whether you give goods, groceries or money, you're offering hope and dignity to someone who needs it.
Ways to give
All stores open for donations!
We gladly accept most good-quality items to sell in our Op Shops. Sales from our Op Shops directly fund the support we provide to local families in need.
Donation drop off hours
Monday to Saturday, 9.30am - 3.30pm
Want to donate large furniture?
If you're within 10km of Airport West (or 5km of our other stores), contact us to arrange a collection.
Donating goods and furniture
Our Sunshine and Airport West Community Pantries support 500+ families every week! If you’d like to contribute to directly making an impact to the families and helping to fill our shelves and their food parcels, pantry staples can be donated.
We accept:
Non-perishable food items
Perishable goods (if delivered in person)
Toiletries and household basics
You can drop these off at either our Sunshine or Airport West Pantry between 10am - 3pm or to our team members at our stores.
Are you a business and interested in donating stock? Fill out this form and let's work together to support local families.
Pantry food donations
Get your school, workplace, or community group involved and help make a real difference!
Whether you’re keen to run a one-off donation drive or something longer term, we’ve got everything you need to get started. We can supply portable wheelie bins, steel donation bins, or even our iconic blue donation bags for a quick and easy campaign.
Just send us an email to let us know you're interested, and someone from the Helping Hands team will be in touch to help you set it up!
Enquire about running a clothing or food drive for us here >
Running a food or clothing drive
Your financial support directly funds our Emergency Food Relief and Furniture & Essentials Assistance Programs. By donating financially, you’re directly impacting individuals and families through our Community Pantry and our Material Aid program. All donations over $2 are tax deductible.
Prefer to donate via bank transfer, card payment or over phone? Just complete the contact us enquiry form below and we’ll get in touch.
Make a financial donation
Why we can’t always take everything — and how that helps families in need
We’re incredibly grateful for your generosity. Every donation helps us keep quality items out of landfill and raises vital funds through our op shops. The proceeds from these op shops go directly to our community pantries, providing food to around 150 families each day. By ensuring we stock quality goods in our op shops, these items are more likely to sell, which means more funds to support families facing hardships.
While we’d love to accept everything, we sometimes can’t. This may be because:
It isn’t in a condition that we can pass on – we can only sell items that are safe, clean, and ready for a new owner to enjoy.
Our stock of this item is currently full – sometimes our shelves are full, and we need to pause accepting certain things until there’s room again.
It’s not something we can sell – from our 18 years of experience, we’ve learned that some items just don’t sell in our op shops, and keeping them takes up valuable space.
With limited space in our op shops and warehouses, we need to make sure every donation has the best chance of finding a new home. Thank you for understanding—and for helping us make every donation count!