Rotary Club assists the Port Fairy Community Lunch program
Posted by Harry Bracegirdle on Oct 18, 2016
Members of the Rotary Club of Port Fairy have been active during October 2016 by providing a host of volunteers for catering duties at the recently launched, Port Fairy Community Lunch being conducted at the local Community House.
Each Tuesday in October, up to six Rotarians are helping with the lunch program by planning and cooking meals, serving the guests and cleaning up after the meal.
See Photo Gallery for images of the Community Lunch Program.
The Port Fairy Community Lunch was launched in September 2016 as an initiative of Moyne Health Services Health & Wellbeing Group to promote social interaction in the community. The Port Fairy Community House has taken the lead role in organising and hosting the lunch each week.
Assisted by a small committee of management, led by Community House Manager, Tatiana Resk Wilson, the program relies heavily on the House's Food Safety Supervisor, Wendy Hunter, assisted by volunteers from the local Lions and Rotary Clubs, the Community House and the Port Fairy Uniting Church. It is hoped that other community groups will eventually assist with the catering which is essentially assigned over a whole month. The Lions Club pioneered the catering in September, followed by the Rotary Club in October with the Community House/Uniting Church team taking over in November. The Lions Club will return in December before a break until February 2107, when Rotarians will again man the kitchen.
Typically, fifteen guests attend the free lunch each week and so far they have been served a variety of menus based on food sourced free of charge from the Warrnambool & District Foodshare. Financial support, in order to get the program started, was used to buy utensils, crockery and to set-up food handling training. Generous donations from the Rotary Club, the Lions Club, The Port Fairy Men's Shed and the Port Fairy IGA, with supplementation from the Port Fairy Community House have been invaluable to the success of the program.
During October some 19 Rotarians have volunteered for the program. Despite the limitations enforced by the limited range of food available from Foodshare (usually plenty of quantity but of limited variety) both the Lions Club and Rotary Club volunteers have put on some imaginative meals. All Rotarians who have assisted the program so fare have seemed to enjoy the challenge and their engagement with the community.
It is hoped that the lunch program, after an initial trial period, will develop in 2017. The committee plans to seek grant funding from the Moyne Shire and the Port Fairy Folk Festival Committee to help keep the program financially sustainable.
Some images from the lunch held 18th October.
See Photo Gallery for more photos.