Jennifer Pittorino
The Yarraville Community Centre (YCC) is the newest recipient of the West Gate Neighbourhood Fund.
YCC has received $189,072.00 to upgrade the kitchen facilities to support the increased demand for food relief and community access.
Manager Christine McCall said given that the centre has always been involved in community based programmes and workshops for cooking, the funds are needed.
“We have our nourish program which was established in 2020 during COVID, which was all about supporting the local community with friend meals and food,” she said.
The program rescues surplus food and transforms these donations into meals for the local community in need.
Ms McCall said the program has now expanded to include a pantry where people will be able to access the roughly 200 cooked meals a week.
Also available for collection will be eggs, milk and fresh bread with the cooked meals.
Excited for the new kitchen facilities, Ms McCall said the current kitchen is not fit for purpose.
“When you have five or six people cooking in there… The benches, old gas cook tops and dishwashers are all old,” she said.
“If we can reconfigure the space to support the expansion of the programme and fitting for freezers, fridges, storage space, and everything that is lacking, we will meet the community needs.
“It is really important that we’re able to update and reconfigure for the groups and workshops.”
The new kitchen will include an ergonomic bench height for people to work at, dishwashers, new stove tops, ovens, cupboards and under bench fridges.
“We are just so excited and feel very privileged to be able to receive this funding,” she said.
Ms McCall said they are now in the process of looking for builders and getting quotes in time for the project to be completed at the end of the year.
“We are hoping to start around April and be finished by the end of the year.”
The grant will also include the installation of new audio-visual equipment, to improve classrooms and meeting spaces to support the adult learning and services run out of the YCC hub.
