Wyndham Park Community Centre has received a share of $3.5 million in state government funding for multicultural communities.
The funding will be allocated towards providing culturally relevant food for residents accessing the centre’s services and employing a staff member to work with minority groups.
Wyndham Park Community Centre chief executive Greg Ferrington said he was “quite happy” when he learned the funding had been awarded.
“Because 50 per cent of our community that comes to foodbank is Karen, or Burmese, we try to buy really culturally specific food and we’ve also got a lot of people from other cultures,” he said.
“We have Muslims so we try have halal for them, we’ve got some people from Indian backgrounds…it’s just ensuring that food is culturally relevant for them.”
Mr Ferrington said the residents wanting to access the centre’s foodbank won’t be asked for a healthcare card or anything similar as the space is “non-judgemental”.
“For someone when they’re doing it tough…it’s a hard thing to do, dignity wise, to actually have to ask and for us to do it in a nice comfortable way,” he said.
The Foodbank is open on Thursdays from 9.30am-noon, and is arranged similar to a store model, giving people the option to chose what they want, rather than receiving a standard box of general items.
“If people are in need, they just turn up during those hours and we support them with food,” he said.
Fatima Halloum
