Food relief helps feed growing need

THE Heathcote Community House food relief meal program is seeking to provide much-needed respite for cash-strapped locals.

Executive officer Vicki Forde said the effort began in late 2021 as part of Bendigo Foodshare’s cafes for COVID program.

“The idea was to keep food businesses going while using their produce and keeping their suppliers during that period of time,” she said.

“Cafes were paid by the program to produce a number of meals each week.”

In Heathcote the meals were distributed by the local St Vincent de Paul branch.

Ms Forde said that in turn led to discussions about ongoing food support for residents as COVID restrictions were lifted.

“People were feeling pinch, lots of people were isolated,” she said. “Since then the cost of living has skyrocketed.

“We’ve reached out to the kindergarten and we’re now cementing relationships with the schools.

“There are lots of people we’ve been supporting with these meals including carers who are doing it tough and need some respite.”

The Community House isn’t doing it alone with the program having attracted sponsorship and support from Mandalay Resources.

“They gave us some money and they’ve since said it’s a pretty important thing we’re doing so they’ll be giving us a monthly donation,” Ms Forde said.

“They also send along a cooking team each month to step up the number of meals we’re able to make.”

Other community groups have also come on board to help cook and there have been donations from Buddies Op Shop and the Heathcote Uniting Church.

Ms Forde said they had recently been successful in another round of Mandalay grants.

“We’re getting a couple of larger freezers so when we increase the number of meals we’re making we’ll actually have space to store them,” she said.

“Our large freezer will go down to St Vinnies so they’ll have the capacity to store more meals on site and to be able to give them out.

“There’s also an expansion of the program to look at resources for people who have no means to heat up the meals.”

Ms Forde said they did not work directly with meal recipients.

“It’s done by other organisations that deal with the community,” she said. “They have the trust and the contacts.”

The Community House has been producing 60 to 100 meals per week and that number is set to quadruple in the future.

Heathcote St Vincent de Paul Society vice president Maryann Chrisp said they currently had limited storage space but were getting meals from the Community House twice a week.

“There’s always a great variety of meals to choose from,” she said. “We offer them to people who come to see us for assistance.

“It’s entirely up to the clients, if they wish to take a meal they’re more than welcome and if they’re families we can give them a few meals which goes a long way.

“More often than not everyone who receives the meal is highly appreciative.

“It’s been wonderful really because we like to help in any way we can, and this is an added bonus.

“As well as meals Vicki sometimes gives us fresh eggs when they have them available and we’ve been given bags of muffins.

“Anything that becomes available on those days that they can share with us they gladly do.”

Heathcote Community House welcomes offers of support for the food relief meal program and can be contacted on 5433 2820.