By Esther Lauaki
A Macedon family is wrangling friends, colleagues and schoolmates to get on board with its fundraising effort for farmers in rural Australia.
The Culos family – Nicole, Steven and their children, Briana, 16, and Ryan, 13 – is running collections in Sunbury, Gisborne and Keilor on behalf of the Need for Feed charity, which is helping drought-affected famers.
Items in greatest demand include food, thermos flasks, work socks, supermarket and fuel vouchers, pet food and toiletries. People can also make monetary donations online.
Mrs Culos said that it was her husband’s community spirit that led the family to help out.
“As a family, we’re really keen to help,” she said. “My husband is very involved in the community and it was his idea to lend a helping hand. We live in a small community ourselves so we know the struggles.”
Mr Culos travelled to Cobden earlier this year to help farmers affected by fires rebuild fences.
“We contacted Need for Feed and they didn’t have anyone in our area to collect so we offered to set up collection points,” Mrs Culos said.
She said that stories of poverty from farmers around the country pulled at their heart-strings.
“It’s just the community spirit to help others in need,” she said. “There are farmers out there who are living on little food. These stories make you realise that these are Aussies, just like all of us, and they could be any one of us.”
Since 2006, Need For Feed has been supporting communities and farmers across Victoria affected by events such as fires and drought.
Donations can be dropped off at One to One Printing in Keilor Park, Storage King in Sunbury or Gisborne Dental Group in Gisborne.
Monetary donations: needforfeed.org
