Hills Churches join forces to battle winter hunger
On Sunday June 15, members of Dural district Anglican Churches and Cherrybrook Anglican Church will be joining forces for their annual food drive. The Churches will be door-knocking on local districts to collect non-perishable food items for needy families this winter. The Church food drive helps to ensure families who are experiencing financial hardship are provided with some kind of nourishment during the cold winter months.
The drive strengthens the work of ANGLICARE Sydney by illustrating how people can partner together to support others. The Emergency Relief program coordinated by ANGLICARE offers assistance to families experiencing financial difficulty through the receipt of food hampers and/or food vouchers. Local schools are once again showing support for disadvantaged families by joining the food drive with school collections commencing at the beginning of June.
From Saturday May 24, St Jude’s in Dural will have a food collection box located outside the Church. Many community businesses including local IGA’s will also be supporting the food drive by placing food collection boxes outside of their premises in the lead up to the event. Malcolm McLennan is one of the food drive organisers. He says that last year’s food drive was an overwhelming success and they can only hope this year exceeds all expectations too.
“Last year’s food drive resulted in the collection of over ten thousand items, so this year we are raising the bar and aiming to collect at least eleven thousand food products” he said.“On the day we visit over two thousand homes and we have one hundred and twenty people actively involved in the food drive. They are a great team who have a happy and rewarding time.” “We are collecting food items such as tinned meat or fish, soup, vegetables and fruit; rice, noodles, pasta; as well as cartons of fruit juice, long life milk, sugar, cereal, tea and coffee.”
On the day there will be teams knocking on doors, packing boxes at the church and at four o’clock in the afternoon ANGLICARE Sydney’s CEO, Peter Kell, will be speaking to the volunteers at a church service to be held amongst all the boxes of food.
The food drive already has support flowing in and Malcolm McLennan is certain the Hills district will again provide for those who are struggling to survive this winter.
“The Church and local community receive huge satisfaction that the food collected is going to hungry and needy families in the west of Sydney” he said.
The food drive corresponds with ANGLICARE’s winter appeal which people can give to at www.anglicare.org.au or by phoning 13 26 22.
For more information on the food drive please contact: Judy Ross at St Jude’s Anglican Church on 02 9651 1119
