Paul cares for his partner with dementia, along with a son and granddaughter who live with them. Putting food on the table proved difficult until Drysdale Family Support stepped in to help.
“I have lots of mouths to feed. You end up pulling your hair out trying to work out how to get by with trying to cover the cost of power, food and everything else”.
Paul talks fondly about his granddaughter, in a difficult custody arrangement. He describes life as hard and difficult.
“Coming here to [Drysdale Family Support] makes everything easier. It makes it a lot easier to cover food costs, on top of everything else. This helps out. Plus you get a friendly face and are made to feel welcome. The other people here who need help as well, we all feel like we’re a family.”
Supporting the Community
The Give Where You Live Foundation provided a $25,000 Survive and Thrive Grant to Drysdale Community Support, an organisation based on the Bellarine Peninsula that provides support to families in the area with a food bank, a community and the support to thrive.
The Drysdale Family Support food bank has been operating for 23 years. It started with groceries on a pantry shelf and has now expanded to take over a significant portion of Drysdale Community Church. The purpose of the food bank is to provide a number of days (generally about five to six days) worth of healthy nutritious food for each presenting household. The food available is from across the food groups and consists of fresh fruit and vegetables, tinned and packaged non-perishables, and refrigerated and frozen products. It includes cereal, grains, dairy, protein (meat products), long life products, organically grown produce, and also has allowances for food intolerances such as gluten free and dairy free products.
The Give Where You Live Foundation’s support means that families like Paul’s have continuous support and access to fresh, healthy, nutritious food.
Drysdale Family Support
Drysdale Family Support Coordinator, Jake Hogendoorn said that the food bank has become the main way the organisation is able to help those in need in the area.
“It just keeps growing and growing. What started as a small shelf in a cupboard now provides support for over 50 families each week. We are now providing over 2000 food parcels and are up 20% on the same time last year.”
Funding from the Give Where You Live Foundation has proved invaluable. “Give Where You Live have basically been the reason we’ve been able to keep going and support more and more families.”
Helping families put food on the table
Ida and her husband Emilio have been coming to Drysdale Family Support for close to 19 years. They found themselves needing some support when three of their adult children moved back home for different reasons, bringing with them four young children. With ten people in the house, Ida was at a loss as to how to cope.
“I wondered how was I going to feed all these people? My husband and I weren’t working and were on the pension and one of my sons hasn’t been well for a long time. And the children were all little.”
“I didn’t think we could manage. We found it tough. Even having to ask for help was tough, I was embarrassed. But how was I going to feed everyone?”
Ida found that attending Drysdale Family Support and meeting Jake and his team was a wonderful support.
“My grandchildren are all grown up now, and some of them still live with us. So I still come here. Without this place, I don’t know what I would have done. This is my therapy coming here and talking to other people. It’s not only the food. It’s talking, the interaction, the community. Without this place, I don’t know where I’d be. There’s not enough I can say about coming to the food bank here.”
Every year Give Where You Live Foundation is able to make a difference to hundreds of people across the region with funds generously donated. We support our own initiatives and those in the areas of life crisis, homelessness, food security, and employment. Join us in creating a fairer community for everyone in Geelong. Learn more at www.givewhereyoulive.com.au