Community organisations in Sunbury and a neighbourhood house in Macedon Ranges received a state grant aimed at boosting food relief programs.
The grants were announced at the Kyneton Community House – which received funding towards upgrading kitchen equipment, increasing volunteer recruitment and training, community education, and local partnerships.
Community House director Claire Rawlinson said the organisation is “really grateful” to receive the grant, especially amidst an increase in community members seeking support.
“We’ve been really inundated with people needing ready meals for food relief, so we’re expanding our operations and hoping to create a model for delivery for people who can’t make it to us,” Ms Rawlinson said.
“We’re seeing more people coming through our doors than usual and we’re also seeing more people coming through our doors from a different social demographic … people are needing food relief all across the board,” she said.
“It definitely increased prior to Christmas, and we had some families struggling to make ends meet for Christmas. We provided some people [with] entire contents for Christmas lunch as well, which we would not normally have done.”
She said the organisation is currently looking for additional volunteers to assist with food preparation and distribution.
In Sunbury, Carworks SunRanges received a grant towards maintaining its food supply.
Careworks SunRanges service delivery manager Jane Williams said the organisation serves a “very large” number of people and noticed an increase in people seeking support towards the end of last year.
“It was just indicative of what had happened for the whole year … that’s what it will look like for the year to come I’d imagine,” Ms Williams said.
Sunbury Aboriginal Corporation received a grant for an upcoming program in collaboration with Goonawarra Neighbourhood House and Multicultural Resource Hub.
Oscar Parry
