Gerald Lynch
In an attempt to address food insecurity, Anglicare Victoria’s food relief van will soon roll into Craigieburn.
Generous donor Peter Manger paid for the van in full and also for it to be equipped with fridges, after learning about the situation experienced by many families across the north, where putting food on the table every night has become a difficult task.
Now retired, Mr Manger had a successful career as an engineer and said he wants to give back to those less fortunate.
“Growing up in a lower middle class family… I’ve seen the other side of it,” he said.
“It’s important that we give back, so I donated money for the van and for some fridges.”
Anglicare Victoria program manager dioceses and parish partnerships Chris de Pavia said it was a huge boost to be able to bring necessary support to families in need.
“A lot of our current sites don’t have the capacity to store fresh fruit and vegetables so we give out food vouchers, but with the van, we’ll be able to top up our services, and people will walk away with twice the amount of food,” he said.
“We want to give out as much food as we can. At the moment we are really under the pump with demand, since pre-COVID times the amount of people we are supporting has doubled.
“The demand in Craigieburn is really starting to pick up, lots of people with mortgages are really struggling.”
As the sun fades and the cold weather creeps back as winter nears, Anglicare Victoria is also launching its winter appeal, to make more initiatives such as the relief van possible.
Looking to take hunger off the table for all families, Anglicare Victoria chief executive Paul McDonald urged everyone to give what they can to ensure a winter of full stomachs.
He explained that in the last 12 months, there has been 53,000 relief assists provided by Anglicare Victoria, a major increase on previous years, and said it was alarming how many people were reaching out for the first time.
“In the last year, four in 10 of the families we see have never been to an emergency relief service before,” he said.
“This has led us to taking food and provisions straight out to the community, through efforts such as a van.
“We are launching our appeal, and we are seeing how we can bring relief services more effectively and more impactful than just giving people a bag of groceries, we want to give further support to families in need.”
Donate: giving.anglicarevic.org.au/
