South Eastern Community Connect has stepped up to provide continuing service for the clients of the Food Distribution Network, FDN.
Botany-based FDN, which delivers $10 fruit and vegetables boxes to the elderly, disabled and people living with HIV or AIDS, recently announced that it will be forced to cease its services due to changes in funding.
This week, South Eastern Community Connect, which runs a similar service, announced that they will step in to provide continued service for FDN’s clients.
“South Eastern Community Connect will definitely be able to continue the support for the elderly with this service as usual”, said Kate Melhopt, Executive Officer of South Eastern Community Connect. “We don’t want people to worry about their food delivery, and we are assessing how we can provide continuation for those clients with disability or HIV as well. They are looked after by a different funding arrangement and we need to investigate how we can cover that”, Ms Melhopt said.
“It is disappointing to see a long-serving organisation like FDN go out of business after so many years of valuable support to the community. We will, however, see this as an opportunity to pool our resources, streamline services and improve how we support the community of Eastern Sydney,” she said.
“One of the new things that FDN clients can access through us is a food preparation service. Not only can you have your fruit and vegetables delivered to your door, you can also have one of our staff members prepare the food with you. Our current clients love that they can get the fresh produce and have freezer meals prepared at the same time, and this will now also be available to people living in Redfern and Waterloo”, she explains.
“At this stage we will be here to provide continued service to all elderly clients of SDN who use the service, and have capacity to take on new clients as well,” she says.
South Eastern Community Connect has been providing support for the community for more than 35 years. Services include in-home carer respite, transport, food preparation, social support, groups and activities, home visits and a dementia day centre.
Existing FDN clients and anyone interested in any of these services can contact South Eastern Community Connect on 02 8338 8506 for further information.