Hi all, Happy New Year.

FOOD FOOD FOOD

With some new funding via the State Government ‘Community Food Relief’ program, we are creating more opportunities for our community to build social connections through food. Sharing a meal regularly is a great way for locals to get to know each other. And with our new kitchen up and running we are in the ideal position to build community food opportunities this year - so we feel super lucky that this fortuitous funding has come along.

We have five food related programs on offer in 2025, and we’d love for you to come along!

• Garden to Plate (NEW) - Learn to cook seasonal food and then enjoy sharing a meal, on Mondays from 11.30am 1pm. This is a free program, but you must book in online as places are limited.

• Thursday Supper Club (NEW) - Do you often eat alone? Are you tired of cooking and/or keen to make some local friends over a meal? Come along and enjoy a healthy weekly ‘family meal from 5-6.30pm (perfect if you don’t like to be out too late at night). Term 1 costs $40 (that’s $5 a week). ’ - food provided but as a group you will need to set the table, serve up, do the dishes etc. - just like you would a home. This program starts on Thursday 13 February. Click here to join up. If cost is an issue for you just call our office.

• Community Lunch - our Friday lunch continues in 2025, join in from 12pm, or come along earlier to catch up over gardening, craft and community shed activities from 10am. This is a free program, but please let know to expect you - call or email.

• Crunch - Like good food? Enjoy being creative? Thursday lunches are for you! Join us from 12.30pm -2pm for lunch followed by a creative arts activity - painting, drawing, 3D art … and more. Book in for the term or by the week here.

• Preserves Group - join us on the 3rd Tuesday of the month from 1-3pm to help us turn excess garden produce/ seasonal fruit and vegetables into jams, chutneys and pickles for fundraising. We use donated jars and ingredients (donations always welcome) … and we’ll thank you for your volunteering efforts with good conversations and a light afternoon tea (including a fancy coffee)! Email us here if you’d like to join in. This group is coordinated through What’s App.

ALSO on to other things … join a Book Club

We have a couple of spots in each of our Book Clubs in 2025. They are on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings, with a daytime group meeting on Thursdays at 10am. Our Book Clubs meet monthly from February (when you come along and collect your first book) and finish up in December. You’ll read 10 books for the year supplied by Darebin Libraries. Our Book Clubs are a great way to meet other locals! Keen to join up? Book in here!

AND … there’s lots more.

• Op Shop Tours

• Sustainability/Repair Workshops

• Art Classes

• Access All Abilities IAAA) programs

• Playgroups

• Music and Dancing Groups and Classes

• Fitness Classes

Check out our full program here. And book in here.

I’ll highlight some of the other great things we’re super excited about in the coming few weeks.

I hope you are having a good break/relaxing summer.

Cheers Leanne

As you probably know, we are a collection point for the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, and you can leave donations of household staples in the clearly labelled cupboard in our back garden any time.

The donated goods are collected fortnightly on a Thursday morning. This collection will continue over summer this year.

Thank you to everyone that donates - including schools and churches and individuals.

ASRC provides amazing services to some of the most vulnerable people in our society who cannot access either jobs or government financial assistance due to visa conditions etc.

Their ‘supermarket’ service and meal support makes a huge difference to peoples lives and dignity.

Christmas.

It is very hard to believe that this is our last week of programming for 2024 - but there you go! I hope you are more organised than I am with present buying and general planning …. aagh! Usually I have my shopping complete by the first week of December - this year I have barely scratched the surface. Never mind … it’ll all come together I am sure (it has to right?).

On Thursday we have our last session of Alphington Arts at 7pm. We’ll be doing some paper weaving led by Corrin. If you are interested in joining in this creative group experience look out for it next year and join up!

And … of course everyone is welcome to join us on Friday for an end of year celebration and early Christmas Lunch at 12pm. We’ll have a yummy celebratory buffet, with something for everyone, like chicken and ham and salads … some Christmas cake, brownies and lemon slice. And Santa will be there! We’ll sing a few carols. We’ll have our traditional lucky door prize! RSVP if you can. Gold coin donation appreciated.

We also have Christmas Carols at 7pm, coming up on Sunday 22 December at the Alphington Bowls Club. Another chance to meet Santa … and sing loudly to your hearts content. Always a great local night.

We hope to see you this week.

Leanne

This year are putting together some Christmas hampers to support locals doing it tough over the holidays. If you have nice Christmassy food items or small things like soaps or household basics that you would yourself enjoy as part of a practical and thoughtful hamper, we’re accepting donations - please drop them in the office this week or next.

And … this week we are continuing on our whole of site organisational quest - new storage for the community shed, new cupboards and tubs … and with more room we are undertaking lots of rearranging right across our spaces. By the end of the week we hope to have a sensible home for everything … and then we’ll wrestle our office into shape (again) … and get cracking on our program for next year.

Also coming up in our last few weeks of the year …

1. Alphington Arts - 7pm, Thursday 12 December. Come along for some end of year creativity

2. Christmas Lunch - 12pm, Friday 13 December. Gold coin donation. We’ll have ham and chicken, salads etc. and Santa!

3. Christmas Carols - 7pm, Sunday 22 December at the Alphington Bowls Club. Always lovely and great for families Bring along cash donation for charity.

4. Project Stationery - we’re excited to be supporting this sustainability initiative over summer. Volunteers will be using ACC facilities to sort and rehome excess stationery collected from schools across Melbourne from 14 December to 26 January.

Also … we’ve finally got our tomatoes, cucumbers and capsicum into the front gardens … with mulch etc. It’s looking great out there!

Don’t forget to RSVP for Christmas lunch - call or email - if you can! Have a great week.

Leanne

We appreciate all those that spared the time to complete the online survey this week. As you will be aware, the survey was interested in whether neighbourhood houses help people build stronger community connections.

The information is being consolidated by NHVic - our peak body, and will then be forwarded on to the State Government, who provide nearly 500 neighbourhood houses across Victoria with base funding.