Food relief boost for community

House manager Rob Foran is confident that the grant will allow them to service a greater need for food relief.

“I think the biggest thing about this is that it’s going to improve the quantity and the quality of the food that we can provide our community,” he said.

“Given we’re a small organisation, if we gave our regular sized packs to every person who came asking for food relief, we would be out of food very early in the week.

“We don’t let anyone go out of here hungry ... we’ll at least get you out of the door with some bread and milk, and a couple of little meals.

“But having extra funding, we can probably be a bit more liberal with who gets the food.”

A new 1000-litre fridge and freezer will improve CCH’s fresh food offering, as well as store surplus food.

As stock from Bendigo Foodshare and Foodbank Victoria varies week-to-week and month-to-month, the new appliances will increase CCH’s food security.

“With the fridge, we can provide more into hampers each week,” Mr Foran.

“With the freezer, we’ve got greater capacity to be able to store food, so if we do have surplus for a month, it can carry over.

“Then we’re not stressing about, ‘we need to get rid of this so we can get more in’.”

The new fridge and freezer will have glass doors, which Mr Foran believes can improve the cycle of food usage.

“We’ve got chest freezers, so sometimes when you’re putting stuff into chest freezers you don’t know what’s in the bottom half,” he said.

“The glass front one we can actually make better decisions as to what food we cook up and when because it’s a lot more visible and manageable.”

Crossenvale Community House also operates a community garden, created with assistance from the Echuca Apex Club and the Rotary Club of Echuca-Moama.

The Community Food Relief Grant funding will support the garden, allowing for more self-sufficiency and greater input from the CCH garden club.

Mr Foran is planning a series of eight cooking classes using accessible recipes that attendees can replicate at home.

These will also have a focus on the produce grown in the community garden.

“We’re looking for two or three chefs to run small group cooking classes,” he said.

“We want to use some of the produce that comes into the community garden.

“We want our community to be able to take these recipes home and the instruction on how to create them and do them in their own homes.”

When announcing the funding, state Member for Northern Victoria Jaclyn Symes highlighted the work of organisations such as Crossenvale Community House.

“These grants will deliver much-needed food relief to those who need it, and provide a helping hand for Victorians in need so they can get back on their feet,” she said.

“We know our wonderful community organisations have the local knowledge and connections to best understand and respond to local needs, and to provide food relief where it’s needed most.”

Mr Foran acknowledged the Victorian Government’s support of the organisation through the Community Food Relief Grant program.

“Overwhelming thanks for the opportunity to better support our community,” he said.

Donations to the food relief program, including cash and in-kind are always welcome, along with volunteer support.

Those interested in assisting the program can pop into CCH at 28 Boothman St, Echuca between 9am to 3pm, Monday to Thursday, or reach out to Mr Foran at crossenvale@gmail.com or on 0459 049 474.

“We’re always looking for enthusiastic volunteers to help with food relief, but also our educational and social programs,” Mr Foran said.