Steve Wylie spoke about extending the Club's relationship with the aged care sector and asked members to provide advice to him of contacts that they may be aware of in the sector who could hopefully help develop the relationships.

 

Doug advised there has been great demand for the FORaMEAL packs especially from individuals and families who do not qualify for government assistance programs. The Club is now partnering with a number of organisations including Foodbank and Northpoint in Tullamarine to help distribute the food packs.

 

Also the FORaMEAL website has been relaunched with a new look - please see the story below.

 

We were very pleased to be advised by Rose Stewart that she has been in contact with an organisation  called Pinchapoo (slang for pinch-a-shampoo) which is proudly responsible for creating a cheeky hotel toiletry 'pinching' movement 11 years ago and which has been involved with distributing care packs at hospitals for some time. Rose has arranged for the organisation to commence providing the care packs to Box Hill hospital. Well done Rose for getting this sorted.

 

Bob Lambert advised that the Board had approved a project to distribute welcome bags (they could have called packs but both of the stories above have been about packs) to new residents in Boroondara. While there is still some planning to be put in place, the concept is that a bag containing a welcome letter,  information about Boroondara, a fridge magnet and information about Canterbury Rotary Club etc would be distributed by members to the new residents in the area.

 

 

We were very fortunate to be joined at our meeting by Harpreet Singh from the Sikh Interfaith Council of Vic.

 

Harpreet became associated with the Club a little while ago when he liaised through his position at Swinburne University to distribute FORaMEAL food packs to students at Swinburne.

 

We were treated to an all to brief outline of the  Sikh community and in particular the arm of the community which was founded in Melbourne in 2002 to raise awareness of the Sikh religion.

 

There have already been many developments with the organisation being represented on several government and semi government committees. There are also many publications to help advise about cultural  matters when members of the Sikh community for example are hospitalised or come in contact with the police.

 

Harpreet also provided a history lesson about  the birthplace of the Sikh religion in Pubjab in India. There are now around 20 million Sikh's across the world. We heard about values and practices, Singh (meaning lion) being very male's last name and Kaur (meaning princess) being very female's last name.

 

Harpreet  spoke about the giving value of the Sikh faith and advised that around 90000 free meals have been distributed over the passed 150 days by a group of around 245 volunteers. A great achievement.

 

Thanks Harpreet for sharing with us the very informative information about the Sikh religion and activities of the Sikh Interfaith Community.

 

 

 

 

 

 

While the Club has not been able to hold FORaMEAL packaging events, lots still has been happening in the FORaMEAl space.

 

Pallets and smaller parcels of FORAMEAL packs are currently being distributed to those in the community impacted by the Covid restrictions.

 

There has been an amazing take-up with many partner organisations joining with the Club to facilitate the distribution process.

 

To enable the concepts about the  FORaMEAL project to be easily understood, a team which has been led by Club member Kevin Xiao has very quickly established a new FORaMEAL website at www.FORaMEAL.org 

 

There is a very clear objective stated on the website about the FORaMEAl project - "this year, the Rotary Club of Canterbury decided to redirect part of our FORaMEAL effect to help the most vulnerable in the Stage 4 COVID-19 restrictions in Melbourne. Our aim simple – to provide 100,000 nutritious meals to Melbournians who are at risk of hunger". 

 

Please take a moment to visit the website and see the details about the great work being undertaken with the FORaMEAL project and how you (or  organisations which you are affiliated with) may assist by becoming a partner and/or  making a tax deductible donation.