Food Ministry Support in the area of Willagee - Kardinya
Local Anglican Church is adapting to help more people
Each week, the Anglican Diocese of Perth through St Thomas of Canterbury Church supplies food items to people and families doing it tough in the Willagee and Kardinya area.
However, due to COVID-19 restrictions and physical distancing measures, access to the church became restricted. Further, as items could not be rehandled, the ability to personally choose items could no longer be offered, much to the dismay of volunteers and those accessing the service.
The food service was facing the same challenges as other community services across Australia as they too deal with an increase in demand while contending with restrictions and fewer resources.
Yet the food ministry service is keeping up with demand, says church volunteer William (Wally) Phoebe, who is happy the team has been able to continue to provide some food and friendship support to those who come to the Church’s front door.
“To control the handling of the food items, we now package ‘mini hampers’ the day before and have them available on the Wednesday morning from our front door only and we drop off emergency deliveries at other times as needed,” Mr Phoebe said.
Mr Phoebe said the service has been able to continue to meet increased demand due to an allocation of funds from an outside source, the local IGA and the support of surrounding Anglican parishes. The church volunteers work in teams with at least three people making themselves available each Wednesday morning and a similar number of people needed to pack hampers on a Tuesday morning.
St Thomas of Canterbury Church, located at 77-79 Archibald Street, Willagee , is an active and growing mission-minded parish of the Anglican Diocese of Perth serving the community of Willagee and Kardinya.