HICCI welfare co-ordinator Sheree Lauman, left, and executive officer Kerri Goding signed off on the last JAA delivery and thanked driver Keith McDougall for a great job over the past 18 months.
By Kath Gannaway
HEALESVILLE welfare group Healesville Interchurch Community Care Inc. (HICCI) is in desperate need of a refrigerated van and some able-bodied volunteers to drive it.
Two weeks ago the organisation that provides welfare for residents of Healesville, Yarra Glen and Toolangi, received its last delivery of fresh fruit, milk, bread and meat from VicRelief.
After the bushfires, Jewish Aid Australia (JAA) provided industrial refrigerators and freezers and a refrigerated van and driver for weekly delivery of fresh foods. But with that support now at an end, HICCI executive officer Kerri Goding said the only way to maintain what had previously been a un-met need for their clients, was to collect the food from the VicRelief centre on the other side of town.
Ms Goding said the bushfires highlighted a need for readily available fresh food.
That need, she said, was increasing, with more than 300 food hampers given out last month. Ms Goding said they didn’t ask if people had been bushfire affected in order for them to receive welfare.
“People don’t come here unless they have to,” she said.
“With the increasingly high cost of living, more and more people are seeking emergency relief, and it’s not just people on benefits.
“One of our strategies is to give food hampers so people have the money to pay their utility bills, or their rent to keep a roof over their heads,” she said.
Ms Goding said the generosity of JAA had enabled them to provide healthy, fresh food, and the end of the program would leave a big gap.
“We have the refrigerators and the freezers, but once we have to pick up more than 45 minutes away, we have to use a refrigerated van,” said Ms Goding.
“If someone has a refrigerated van they’re not using every day of the week, we could certainly make use of it,” she said.
Ms Goding can be contacted at HICCI on 5965 3522.
