Cade Lucas
The food relief program at Wyndham Park Community Centre is under threat, with organisers calling on the state government to reinstate funding provided during COVID in order to keep the service running.
Wyndham Park Community Centre operates its Community Store Program every Thursday morning providing food and grocery products for local residents in need.
After demand for the service skyrocketed during the pandemic, Wyndham Park and other community centre food relief programs received state government grants to help them cover increased costs.
But while the pandemic had subsided, the cost of living crisis that has followed has meant demand for the service has remained high.
Wyndham Park Community Centre manager Ian Fenton said the level government funding for food relief services had not.
“The number of Australian families experiencing food insecurity has absolutely skyrocketed and just as that’s been happening, that’s when all of the funding for food relief services has evaporated,” Mr Fenton said.
“There hasn’t been any real government funding to support these sorts of services.”
In response, a spokesperson for the state government said as a member of the Neighbourhood House program, Wyndham Park still received significant public funding.
“Wyndham Park Community Centre continues to receive ongoing funding of approximately $155,000 each year from the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing’s Neighbourhood House Coordination Program,“ the spokesperson said.
“To support almost 400 Neighbourhood Houses across the state, the Allan Labor Government invests $50 million a year, boosted by an additional $19 million investment in September 2022 over three years.”
Mr Fenton said the Neighbourhood House funding was for other services they provide such as community development and training, not food relief, which he estimates costs Wyndham Park between $50,000 and $60,000 per year.
He said the shortfall had already resulted in them serving less families, with numbers dropping from an average of between 150 and 170 per week, to 130 and 150.
“We used to provide to anyone with a Wyndham address, but we’ve had to reduce that to just Werribee and Hoppers Crossing. The biggest driver behind that decrease in demand is just because we’ve reduced our geographic range.”
