An important focus at Bonnie’s is making sure that our families can provide nutritious meals so the children have the best chance in life to grow and thrive. We do this with one to one family support, and workers provide mentoring, and encouragement, to eat healthily.

The mums who stay with us at our refuges are just like other mums – they want the best for their kids. While they are with us, women cook and care for their children independently using their (often limited) funds. They are in charge of providing all the things that other mothers provide for their kids ; healthy meals, school supplies, clothing, school shoes, etc. Unfortunately Centrelink payments don’t go very far and it’s always a stretch to cover all the essentials.

We decided our families needed more help in providing fresh and healthy ingredients so Bianca, our Tenancy Officer,  contacted Oz Harvest to find out if they could provide further support to our families.

OzHarvest is the first perishable food rescue organisation in Australia. It collects quality excess food from more than 2,000 commercial outlets and delivers it, direct and free of charge, to more than 900 charities.

Since December, they have delivered boxes every Friday to Bonnie’s including fruits, bread, vegetables and meats. There may also be some dry goods like cereals etc. We normally set the produce up on tables and our families can choose what they would like to eat. Clients can also come to the office to collect some food and organise their own meals.

Food is a major expense for families and quite often they don’t have the confidence to buy fresh fruit, vegetables and meats. Oz Harvest’s weekly boxes of goodies encourages our mums to think creatively about the meals they do prepare and perhaps buy products they may not have tried before. It is an amazing chance to be exposed to fresh food and have the confidence to buy and cook well.

We are so grateful to Oz Harvest for helping us and the families we support. Each week many families have enough fresh food to provide a number of meals for their children. This means families have one less stress during the time they are with us here at Bonnie’s. It’s a jump start to living better in the future too!

Thank you Oz Harvest.

Written by Nguyen