Food relief has been the focus all year for Mernda resident Hayley Thomas who has been working at Whittlesea Food Collective, WFC, as part of VicHealth’s new employment and training program.
WFC is an initiative established in 2019 under Whittlesea Community Connections, WCC, to assist people experiencing financial hardship within the City of Whittlesea, with free food, material aid or help accessing other services.
The WFC is supported by VicHealth’s Future Healthy initiative that helps organisations to create and run seven food hubs across the state, with funding and programs.
This year VicHealth delivered its employment and training initiative – The Youth Food Systems Lead-ership and Employment Program – where individuals are based across the hubs to gain hands-on employment and experience in the whole food system.
Ms Thomas, one of 12 people to participate in the program, had completed an apprenticeship in a commercial kitchen and a Cert IV in youth work, but the program was the first time she had stepped into a community-based role.
Most of her tasks required operating garden workshops for primary schools, different multicultural events at the WFC’s warehouse at Melbourne Polytechnic’s Epping campus, as well as administration work at WCC.
But one of her most rewarding tasks was her shifts at the Melbourne Market on Cooper Street, Epping, where she would purchase fresh produce to provide at WFC’s food market.
“It’s been amazing. I guess the kind of core of it all was setting up our first social enterprise, being part of that, which was our food hub market … it’s more about access, rather than trying to create funds, because [we] don’t actually make profit from that market,” Ms Thomas said.
“It’s super rewarding, I have comments from people – one lady in particular, she was a bit shy, but she told me that she was just so grateful for us being there.
“Because she’s struggling to afford fresh produce from the big supermarkets, so just to have some-thing like us available, she’s able to still have that fresh food in her diet she wouldn’t usually be able to afford.”
Through the program, Ms Thomas identified how interconnected communities were to food systems and agriculture.
“It’s extremely rewarding in that sense that you get to actually see how you’re making a difference,” she said.
“You’re not sitting at a desk all the time, you’re actually out there, talking to communities, seeing what their needs are and able to relay that back in and make sure that needs are met.”
Looking ahead after the program, Ms Thomas will resume a new role at WCC as a child and youth worker, where she can still share her knowledge of food systems with young people.