Fuso boosts kids' health
A Fuso Canter is delivering oranges and mandarins to promote the health of school children in Victoria's Geelong regionGeelong charity Project C is using a Fuso Canter to deliver fresh fruit to children at 40 schools throughout the region, across an area hit hard by the manufacturing downturn.
The charity is supported by three local businesses in the suburb of Breakwater – Geelong Citrus Packers, Penny Scallan Design and Geelong Fuso.
Geelong Citrus Packers donates the fruit which is then distributed by a new 515 Canter with box body supplied by Geelong Fuso. Meanwhile Penny Scallan Design, which specialises in premium bags and accessories for kids, supports the Project C initiative and has also donated 1000 backpacks, lunchboxes, hats and suitcases to children and schools in the harder hit areas of Geelong.
Once Geelong Fuso's media and marketing coordinator, Allie Crosgrove, phones through the orders to Geelong Citrus Packers' logistics manager, Calvin Schultink, the truck is loaded with around 40 boxes of mandarins and oranges.
Three volunteer drivers take turns to deliver the fruit, three days a week. Mr Schultink, affectionately called 'Mohawk man' by some of the school children, fills in if the driver can't make it.
He says the Canter, which can be driven on a car-licence, is perfect for volunteers to drive because they don’t need a truck licence to get behind the wheel.
"Really, it isn't very different to driving a car at all," he says.
Geelong Citrus Packers managing director, David Thierry, says the idea for Project C came about from discussions he had with Richard Furnari.
Mr Furnari is the dealer principal of Geelong Fuso, the 2013 and 2014 Australian Fuso dealer of the year, which is located just around the corner.
Mr Furnari says the idea was to make a difference by improving the nutrition of around 12,000 young people across the greater Geelong region, "Particularly where the closures of major industries have had an impact and added more pressure to struggling families."
As Mr Thierry puts it, "It is paramount that kids get a good dose of vitamin C and many are not getting that for various reasons.
"We hope to get kids to realise that fresh fruit is yummy and get them excited about citrus."
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