THE reality of life for people doing it tough can be unseen and unimaginable to those in warm homes and with food in the fridge.
Georgia Hourn, CEO at Western Port Community Support ‐ the largest provider of emergency relief in the Western Port region ‐ said the centre was seeing a massive increase in people needing support. “We have just witnessed the worst six months on record in terms of demand in our agency’s 43-year history and we don’t expect things to improve any time soon,” she said. “But as an agency we are a strong team of five paid staff supported by an amazing group of 35 volunteers who we rely on each week to help those in need in our community.”
Western Port Community Support provides emergency relief and crisis support, as well as housing and homelessness case‐managed support, intensive family support, medical assistance, fuel vouchers, financial counselling and material aid to anyone in crises or experiencing hardship.
Hourn said an average of 180 individuals or families were accessing food support from the agency each week. “We provide food vouchers and food parcels all through the week, but on Tuesday’s from 2.30pm we deliver what we call Fresh Food Tuesday,“ she said, “This program involves utilising the recovered food from Secondbite and Oz Harvest and setting up in ‘market style’ in our courtyard for the community to come and select whatever they need. “We always have a wide selection of fruit, vegetables, bread, meat products, dairy items and non-perishable groceries. In terms of quantity, we give out 1.5 tonne of food each Tuesday.”
The support service also provides fresh produce each week to groups such as Willam Warrain, Bunjilwarra, Good Shepherd, and two local schools. “Our focus is always community helping community, and Fresh Food Tuesday is a wonderful example of this approach. Our team of 15 volunteers donate their time each week to help unload the trucks, sort the produce and set up ready for service,” Hourn said.
“We always have available trained support workers who provide immediate support to anyone who may be experiencing personal crisis or issues over and above a need for food. “We know that food insecurity is not a stand-alone issue and many of those we see are experiencing other complex issues that impacts their social, personal and financial capacity, and overall stability. “People who have never accessed welfare support are presenting to our agency in desperate need of assistance, exemplifying the increase in financial hardship across our local community.”
In the 2022/23 financial year the centre provided emergency relief on 6123 separate occasions to more than 1200 individual clients. Those numbers represented a rise of 71 per cent compared to the previous financial year.
Western Port Community Support is at 18 High Street, Hastings.
First published in the Western Port News – 12th June 2024
