Cade Lucas
This Saturday’s meeting of the Wyndham Repair Cafe will be the last unless emergency funding can be found.
Part of the global repair and recycling movement with 2500 sites worldwide, The Wyndham Repair Cafe began in Werribee in 2018 and has survived on funding grants from Wyndham council since.
However, with council rejecting the cafe’s latest funding submission, founder and operator Joe Ferlazzo said that the November monthly meeting could signal the end.
“At the moment we’re in limbo,” said Mr Ferlazzo who is trying to find alternative backers to keep the doors open.
“We’re trying to secure external funding from private businesses who want to sponsor. Our last meeting is on November 11 and then it’s an uncertain future beyond that.”
Held once a month at the Community Shed in Wyndham Park, the Wyndham Repair Cafe involves volunteers coming to repair and restore all manner of goods to prevent them from being thrown away.
“In all we’ve probably stopped two tonne going to land fill,” said Mr Ferlazzo of the amount of items they’d repaired.
He said the cafe’s community benefits went beyond waste reduction.
“We’ve had the ability to inject a lot of recycling and reuse knowledge into the community. Our meetings that we have include the fact that the client can actually participate in the educational process of saving items, so they become part of the process which is educational.”
While not angry at council’s decision, Mr Ferlazzo is confused as to why these community benefits no longer warranted support.
“We appreciate what they’ve done to date, but we were shocked at the lack of continuation on funding.“
Mr Ferlazzo wasn’t alone.
“I didn’t know that there was a funding submission and am certainly shocked to hear that this organisation is finishing up. I’d like to find out more so will be seeking some information myself,“ said Wyndham councillor Marcel Mahfoud commenting below the cafe’s Facebook post announcing its impending the closure.
A spokesperson for Wyndham council explained the decision.
“The recent Community Grant application from the Wyndham Repair Café was not successful, primarily due to budget inaccuracies and ineligible funding being requested,” the spokesperson said.
“Council staff have reached out to the applicant to discuss other funding options and to provide support with any future applications if needed.”
Unless private sponsors can be found, there will be no future applications from the Wyndham Repair Cafe.
Anyone interested in sponsoring can visit their Facebook page or www.growwithjoe.org/index.html
