Culturally appropriate food relief distributed in Shepparton – Ethnic Council of Shepparton and District

Boxes of thoughtfully chosen food items are being distributed to 50 households around Shepparton this week, as COVID-affected communities struggle to stock pantries with the essentials. The donation was supplied by Future Foundation for Kids, a Melbourne-based not-for-profit run by volunteers with Sri Lankan backgrounds.

Future Foundation for Kids president Damitha de Mel and his team collaborated with experts in Shepparton to ensure the donation of culturally appropriate food relief reached those who needed it most urgently.

“Families who come to Australia seeking a better life … sometimes don’t have family and other support networks around them, so those are the people we are targeting mainly, to help them,” Mr de Mel said.

Staff from the Ethnic Council of Shepparton and District, Uniting Shepparton and Greater Shepparton City Council worked together to plan, acquire and distribute food boxes.

Groceries were purchased from small businesses in Shepparton, to ensure the Future Foundation for Kids donation benefited the local economy as well as the community.

For people from African backgrounds, Ethnic Council community employment connector Deng Mading chose staples such as maize and cassava flours, frozen cassava, okra, omena (anchovies), sardines and beans.

Abdullah Naveed, an Afghan community development officer at the Ethnic Council, chose eggs, 10kg bags of rice, oil, beans, tomato paste, various legumes and more essentials for the households he supports.

Mr Naveed said there was high demand for support of this kind among the community.

Ethnic Council with Mayor — Stocking the essentials: Aleena Qazikhil, Deng Mading, Cr Kim O’Keeffe, Sam Atukorala, Abdullah Naveed and Andrew Murley get to work at the Ethnic Council of Shepparton. Photo by Rodney Braithwaite

Case manager Fatima Al-Qarakchy of Uniting Shepparton’s Humanitarian Settlement Program organised food packs for people from Arabic and Indonesian communities.

She said the donation would make a huge difference.

“The feedback I get from clients is amazing, it’s like I give them one million dollars … it’s able to support them in changing their life,“ Mrs Al-Qarakchy said.

Ethnic Council strategic engagement officer Sam Atukorala said allocating the donated food items was a carefully considered process.

“We had to talk to the experts who deal with cases day-in day-out, to pick those families and individuals and groups from new and emerging communities who need it most,“ he said.

City of Greater Shepparton Mayor Kim O’Keeffe said the Future Foundation for Kids donation was gratefully received, and an example of Shepparton building a strong network of relationships with organisations.

“It’s really important that we continue, in good times and bad times, to make sure Greater Shepparton is in the conversation,” Cr O’Keeffe said.

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	The Ethnic Council of Shepparton and District acknowledges the Yorta Yorta People of the land which comprises the Goulburn Valley. We pay respect to tribal Elders, past, present and emerging and we celebrate their continuing culture and acknowledge the memory of their ancestors.
	The Ethnic Council of Shepparton and District is a peak body whose mission is to promote and represent the social, cultural and economic well-being of ethnic communities in the Goulburn Valley Region through the provision of quality and innovative settlement, refugee support, community development, and information and advocacy services.