Ben Cook found a box of about 10 frozen meals beside the footpath on the corner of Hume and Woodland streets on Wednesday afternoon.

He said the number of meals made him think it could have been for a family.

Although Mr Cook wasn't certain how the box of free food came to be on the ground, he said seeing it was a shock.

“It makes you sad to think people might be abusing the system,” he said.

“These lovely ladies and gentlemen who make these meals and the donations they need, so for people to possibly go out there and throw away the meals.

“Volunteers go out of their way to provide these meals to people who are going through tough times.

“We are very lucky to have this service in this town and makes it hard for people who genuinely need to use it.”

UnitingCare operates out of St Stephen’s Church and put out almost 300,000 meals in Wodonga last year with the help of 200 volunteers. 

UnitingCare manager Naomi Jansen said she hadn't heard of meals being dumped for a long time.

“Whether someone dropped it or did it deliberately we don’t know, I hope they wouldn’t because our meals are our most valuable thing,” she said.

“We feed 30 families a day - that’s a lot of meals going out really.

"We have volunteer cooking groups on Monday, five school groups who help out to make meals, it's quite a big production.

“One thing on the side of the pathway isn’t so bad, but I'm hoping it's not something which happens all the time.

“Majority of people who come in are so thankful and its wonderful.”