A Geelong West group is serving almost ten times its normal meals for the hungry, according to the program’s coordinator, as the coronavirus pandemic closes several local charities.
“We’ve had to completely reshape everything that we’ve been doing,” One Care’s community meal coordinator Nicole Riddle said.
“By the end of this week we will have done 1500 meals in the past two-and-a-half weeks. We normally do 70 a week.”
The Hamlyn Heights mother-of-two and former teacher began working for One Care last year, running a community kitchen with disadvantaged people and a community meal each week.
But now the charity’s core group of about 20 volunteers are running an extra community meal each week and offering ‘pantry parcels’, while another 20 have signed up to deliver meals to those in need, Ms Riddle said.
The 37-year-old was in the middle of preparing another 120 meals when she spoke to the Independent on Tuesday morning.
“It’s a crazy time at the moment,” she said.
“I just had a lovely lady drop off homemade slices so we’re going to be distributing them today too.”
One Care had also moved its cooking operations to a larger commercial kitchen at the affiliated OneHope Baptist Church to cope with demand, Ms Riddle said.
The group had increased its operations after some local charities closed because the pandemic had reduced their number of volunteers able to help, she explained.
Some had closed due to most of their volunteers being elderly and at risk, while others lacked space to operate while maintaining social distancing, Ms Riddle said.
One Care had encouraged its elderly volunteers to stay at home but of them were “young and healthy”, she said.
Ms Riddle said had taken precautions to take protect herself, her two daughters and husband from the coronavirus but refused to “live in fear”.
“I’m fit and I’m healthy – I know I need to keep on doing this and that’s a risk I’m willing to take. The positive impact I can have far outweighs the risk.”
For information on food programs during the pandemic visit: feedgeelong.org.au or onecaregeelong.org.au.
