4Cs struggle with growing demand

By Melissa Meehan
LOCAL charities are struggling to keep up with the growing needs of the community.
Pakenham’s 4Cs is one of many community food programs around the state buying more than a third of the food they need to provide for families doing it tough.
Director of 4Cs Jeni Mathieson said she was in the middle of making applications for funding, because the charity desperately needed money for food purchases.
“We get about one third of the food we send out from VicRelief and another third from Woolworths, Aldi and growers – but we need to buy a third,” she said. “And when it all adds up, it amounts to quite a lot.”
Ms Mathieson said it was things like milk, eggs, sugar and cereal that were not provided by VicRelief and were the most expensive and sought after items.
She said 4Cs food bill was roughly $3000 a month and they provided meals for up to 480 families last week alone.
“The number of people in our community who have needed assistance has grown in the past few months,” she said. “We have a lot of new people coming in, but there are also people we haven’t seen in the last seven years who have got to the situation they need help. We’re extremely busy and need all the help we can get.”
VicRelief Foodbank CEO Ric Benjamin said solving the transport and storage puzzle was critical for charities providing food.
“In the summer months or when helping rural communities far from Melbourne, access to cold store freight will dramatically increase the nutritional value of food we can supply,” he said.
Ms Mathieson said 4Cs was lucky to have a good relationship with local growers – but said with the constant growing needs of the community any extra help or support was welcome.