Community gets Mitch back on the road

THE community has rallied behind Mitch Knapton to help him continue his mission of providing for people in need.

Mr Knapton has been cooking meals for struggling locals since the first round of lockdown.

He also delivers the meals with the help of his volunteer “isolation fairies”.

However, Mr Knapton recently ran into complications when his van’s clutch gave way.

The problem would cost about $3,000 to fix. Furthermore, Mr Knapton wanted it fixed in a hurry so he could keep delivering his meals.

He decided to put a post on the Surfcoast Community Noticeboard Facebook page, where he often posts photos of the meals he donates, asking for people to recommend him a mechanic.

Mr Knapton said this prompted some to suggest he begin a crowdfunding campaigning to raise the money.

“Three individual people got in touch with me through Facebook Messenger and said, ‘you need to go set up a GoFundMe page,’ and I said ‘nah, that’s not my style. Thanks for the offer, but it’s okay, I’ll sort it out,'” said Mr Knapton.

“A couple of hours later and I still hadn’t found a mechanic and I was like ‘maybe I should.

“I even rang my mum in WA, and mum said, ‘just do it, you’ve been doing so much good work for the community at the moment, maybe it’s time to get something back.'”

Mr Knapton gave his friend Ferne Millen the go-ahead to set up a crowdfunding campaign.

People made their admiration for Mr Kanpton and his work clear as his $3,000 target was more than tripled.

Mr Knapton said he was astonished by such kindness.

“I’m completely blown away and a little overwhelmed and embarrassed.”

The additional funds will be of great use to Mr Knapton as well, as he has ambitions to extend his aid.

“The money left over from getting the van fixed up is will go straight back into my mission,” he said.

“I’ve got people around me, like a small army of “iso fairies”, people that are willing to become my committee members to really help me gain a bit of momentum and start upping the ante.

“We’re going to start doing it twice a week, on a Tuesday night as well as a Saturday night, and we’re going to try and increase the volume of the meals, so instead of doing 15 to 20 meals we’ll be doing 25 to 30 meals twice a week.”

Mr Knapton is subsequently looking to get other chefs to help and is also in search of a commercial kitchen to use biweekly.

Mr Knapton said he knows there are still plenty of people who are struggling and would benefit from the support.

“We know there’s a lot of other groups out there like Feed Me Bellarine and Feed Me Surf Coast who are taking care of a lot of people, but there’s still people out there slipping through the cracks and they’re the ones I’m trying to pick up.”

Mr Knapton encourages people who are struggling or know someone who is struggling and could do with a free meal to contact him via Facebook.

Those wanting to volunteer their help can do the same.

People can also still donate to his GoFundMe campaign by heading to gofundme.com/f/micks-iso-meals-and-van-rescue.