Community & Business
8 May, 2024
Food items needed for struggling families
MORE than 100 families a month are reaching out for help from ECHO Empowering Services at Malanda, prompting calls for help from the agency for more food items to be donated.
“We're struggling a lot with our Emergency Relief Pantry at the moment,” Neighbourhood House manager Donna Leigh said.
“We're helping 100-plus households per month, with a large percentage of new participants.
“Mostly these people live in and around Malanda and Millaa Millaa. Many have never sought help before, or not for years and all are facing genuine hardship.
“Due to budget constraints, participants can only access $20 of assistance every eight weeks (food voucher). We have no fuel vouchers, probably until July.
“We have no homeless kits left, though we have a few donated bits and pieces (thank you donors!). We are easily seeing 10 people a day, and sometimes they haven't eaten for a couple of days.
“We aim to help them get through the next couple of days, then they need to seek help again.”
Ms Leigh said people were suffering from rent and mortgage stress, illness, injury, job loss or the end of seasonal work, unexpected car or medical costs, and inflation in general.
“It's still a couple of months until our next lot of funding arrives but we are desperately short of food items and are asking the community to help,” she said.
“All emergency relief agencies in the region are struggling to cope with the demand.
“We are on the front line and we see it every day.”
ECHO is seeking items such as soup (tins or packets), tinned fruit and vegetables, pasta and sauce, tinned tomatoes, noodles, tinned spaghetti and baked beans, tinned fish, tinned meats and stews, sugar and flour (small bags), school lunch snacks, crackers and biscuits, and spreads for bread.
They also want fresh food such as potatoes, pumpkin, chokos, fruit from your trees, and beans and other vegetables that will last) as well as toiletries such as toothpaste, deodorant, soap, razors – mens/ladies, and hand cream
Food items can be dropped off at ECHO, at 11-15 Eacham Place, Malanda, or call 4096 6634 for information.
Emergency Relief is available from ECHO on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9am-2pm.
All cash donations to ECHO are tax deductible. If you want to donate, go to www.echomalanda.org.au/donate and if you want to help the community pantry, please specify this when making a donation.
