EXCITING times are ahead for one of the community’s most dedicated charity groups as A Good Kitchen (AGK) prepares to bring back their dine-in meals following a long break.
After starting in October 2018, the initiative continued to grow until the brakes were well and truly pulled on March 13, 2020 when they were forced to close their doors due to COVID.
It took another eight months to reopen after that under the conditions that they would serve meals as takeaway, and they have continued to do that during the course of 2021 and the opening months of 2022.
However, Tuesday will be the reopening of dine-in meals, and AGK coordinator Goodie is very much looking forward to their return.
“We have been waiting to build up our volunteer pool so we can open up to dine-in again,” she said.
“I thought it is a far stretch so bugger it we will open it.”
The decision to bring back the dine-in meals will be a popular one, as the clients haven’t had the regular opportunity to catch up weekly since they were put on hold.
However AGK will be needing some more volunteers and are calling on anyone who can spare an hour or two once a week, fortnight or month to get in touch.
“We do need a lot more volunteers,” Goodie said.
“Because we don’t want our volunteers being burnt out because they have been running about all night.”
This past week Young Adults Swan Hill (YASH) had a number of members donate their time to help serve meals and Goodie would like to see more young people giving back to their community.
“I really would like to see more youth coming into it and seeing that it is really quite rewarding to know that you are assisting somebody,” she said.
“It is rewarding to you and it is rewarding to the people that you are helping.”
AGK has been extremely fortunate to have a lot of local support especially in the past few months which has helped the group continue to feed those in need.
Styles for Homes, Country Women’s Association Murray Valley and Mid Murray Chiropractic have all made sizeable contributions over the past few months.
AGK were also able to collect donations at the Night Series run by Tyntynder Football and Netball Club that resulted in the group collecting more than $1000.
“We have been extremely lucky,” Goodie said.
“People have been very generous.”
On average AGK serve roughly 80 meals a week, and they encourage people to get in touch the day before so they know how many to cater for to try and reduce waste.
“We are really concerned for the kids and making sure that they are eating,” Goodie said.
“It is mainly families who use our facility”.
Homelessness continues to be a real issue, with many different forms including people living rough, couch surfing, non-permanent housing and people living in their car.
AGK is an important community asset where they provide warm meals once a week at the St Mary’s Community Centre on Splatt Street, especially coming into the cooler months.
