Hands Across Canberra Christmas Appeal – your donation can make a big difference in the right hands. Photo: HAC.
If you think of Christmas, you’re thinking of food, whether it’s a full roast turkey or prawns by the pool. Feasting with family and friends is at the heart of the festive season – unless you’re struggling to put food on the table.
This week, I had a call from Kerry. She has two kids with another on the way, and could see, six weeks out, that Christmas is going to be really tough for her family this year.
“I want Santa to come. I want us to have a nice meal together and I just don’t know how I’m going to manage that,” she said.
That’s the reality for locals who have been hit hard by the cost-of-living crisis and are battling multiple issues. More than 40,000 Canberrans live on the edge, including many who work multiple jobs to keep their families together in Australia’s wealthiest city.
And as a parent like Kerry, it’s heartbreaking to wonder how you can make Christmas happy for your kids.
This year, Hands Across Canberra has banded together with Canberra local Natalie Tanchevski’s 100s 4 1000s project to make sure Canberra families have food on their tables, and some choices for the festive season.
We want to give 1000 Canberra families a $100 Christmas food voucher. The vouchers will be distributed by 10 local community food providers across the ACT, Queanbeyan and Yass.
The vouchers cannot be used to purchase alcohol or tobacco, but can be used to buy fresh food for the festive season at Woolworths, which is generously participating in the campaign.
If you’re donating, you can choose your local pantry or somewhere else that appeals to you – the pantries are spread across the city from Tuggerannong to Gungahlin, West Belconnen to Queanbeyan (and Yass) and run by a wide variety of providers including St John’s Reid, Community Services One, the Lanyon Food Hub and Tuckerbox, who will track vouchers to ensure they’re evenly distributed.
Gungahlin mum Natalie says the 100s 4 1000s campaign started with her own kids, including daughter Ruby, who features in the campaign promotions.
“It began when my daughter was doing some drama classes with the Salvos in Gungahlin, and she saw a basket of toys at their reception desk. My three kids have too many toys, so I began to collect and donate the toys they had grown out of,” she explains.
The idea of food donations developed from there as a way to offer practical help at a time when pressure really mounts on families who are doing it tough.
But Natalie also realised that helping people put food on their tables is more complicated than providing instant noodles or canned ham.
Highly processed carbohydrates are terrible for people’s health in the long run, and tinned ham isn’t much better. People struggling with food insecurity want fresh fruit and vegetables for their children, or long for food that’s familiar in their home culture, especially during the festive season when family traditions are precious.
And more than that, they want dignity. Nobody likes admitting they can’t put food on the table, and shame keeps many away from seeking help. It’s not easy to admit that you and your kids are going hungry.
By partnering with well-recognised local food providers who help feed hungry people all year, we know that vouchers will go to those in genuine need.
100s 4 1000s has raised well over $400,000 over the past five years, and this year, we’re hoping to get even closer to our $100,000 target.
Mega supporters Cordelta, and super donors CDC Data Centres, Cord Civil, the Property Collective, Southern Plumbing Plus, Spa Accounting and Advisory, Brod, McDonald’s (Erindale, Conder, Tuggerannong, Fyshwick and Majura Park), SolarHub and Supersmile Orthodontist have already stepped up to match funding to $5000 per pantry, so your dollar gift now will be doubled.
The campaign runs from now until Christmas – so why not make this an easy fundraiser for your own family or workplace? It’s very straightforward to give through the campaign home page, or just by visiting Hands Across Canberra and hitting the donate button.
And as Ruby Tanchevski and her mum Natalie say, we can make a little go a long way.
Genevieve Jacobs is the CEO of Hands Across Canberra, the ACT’s community foundation.
