Can #KenBehrens give Canberra City Care a community café on Giving Day?
Canberra City Care are appealing to the masses this Canberra Giving Day to help them fund a community café to provide a low-cost dining experience for people in need.
Celebrating their 21st birthday this year, the outreach community mission is proud to serve a diverse range of people at their West Belconnen premises.
Operations manager, Randy Albrecht, says Canberra City Care have four different departments that provide social service lifelines for Canberrans in need.
Running the show are the droves of volunteers and four part-time employees, who lend helping hands to the op-shop, food pantry, community garden and commercial kitchen, and the tech shed.
“Our focus for fundraising at the moment is our very modest community café that we’ve been running a couple of days a week. We literally begged and borrowed for all of the equipment in there and all of it is second-hand that we’ve been able to salvage,” Mr Albrecht says.
“We’ve got old pie warmers, furniture, and display cabinets, and even the coffee machine is a hand-me-down. It’s all doing the job at the moment, but we’d like to make it a much nicer space for our volunteers and customers.”
The café aims to serve up fresh food made from the veggies and fruit grown right on site in their Harvest Garden.
Cooked in their Harvest Kitchen, which already provides affordable meals, the café quality food will be helping Canberrans in poverty, including a dad who is living in his car with his two children.
“A day or two ago, we had a fellow living out of his car with his two kids come in looking for help. We were able to provide him with food and precooked meals and allowed him to use the kitchen. We often assume that people can come here, take things away, and heat them up or cook them but he didn’t have that option,” Mr Albrecht says.
“To be able to provide him with that service is significant, which is where the café comes in. Hopefully, over time we can provide a safe and clean environment for people to come in, sit down, and have lunch at no cost, or for a gold coin donation.”
Not only will the café be providing fresh and sustainable meals, but being able to pop into a café is a luxury many of us take for granted.
“It can really lift their morale and give them something to look forward too. We’re already seeing it. Our clients and volunteers have become part of an extended family community, and hopefully the café will provide a welcoming environment for everyone,” Mr Albrecht says.
With a Hands Across Canberra survey highlighting that 38,000 people – including 6,000 children – are living below the poverty line in the ACT, the help provided by Canberra City Care is essential.
“A success for us is someone who comes in here under Work for the Dole and we can develop some skills, provide them with a reference, and they end up getting work,” Mr Albrecht says.
“It’s great when someone doesn’t need our services anymore and becomes self-sufficient.”
With no reliance on government funding, the main source of finance for the church-based organisation is donations from members of the public.
“We reach a lot of people and households, and really do make a difference in our community,” Mr Albrecht says.
“We need a boost in funding to not only continue providing the services we already do, but to extend that into our community café.”
Canberra Giving Day is running from 9-10 March for 48 hours, and Canberrans are encourage to donate what they can to local community services.
To donate to Canberra City Care on Canberra Giving Day, visit handsacrosscanberra.org.au
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