Prue Drever has won the Monica Hayes Award for her dedication to a Portarlington food relief charity during an International Women’s Day (IWD) event.
The Monica Hayes Award recognised women making a difference in the community and honoured the life of feminist, activist and community leader Monica Hayes, who died from motor neurone disease in 2016.
Ms Drever is president of Food Assist 3223 and received the award during Northern Bellarine’s 10th IWD celebration on March 6. She said it was “really lovely” to win the award as Ms Hayes was a “force to be reckoned with”.
“I feel really honoured as Monica Hayes was an incredibly active woman. She was well ahead of her time and her work in the community was really well known and very well received,” she said.
Ms Drever said she felt the award also represented the skills of the food relief service team that helped provide an accessible and responsive service for the community.
“Our food relief program has been going for 10 years, and we help between about 70 to 80 people a week by providing essential food relief to people on the North Bellarine,” she said.
“When I was accepting the award, I said that it felt like I was receiving it on behalf of the team. It’s very humbling, and I prefer not to be in the spotlight; I prefer it to be about the food bank.
“There’s a lot more people that are feeling the pinch, so we provide somewhere they can come to and where they won’t feel judged, they just feel welcomed and we’re really happy to see them.”
Jena Carr
