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Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gave generously from their pantries this winter to support vulnerable families as part of the 2017 Feed Melbourne Appeal.
The Feed Melbourne Appeal provides food and financial grants to local charities that are struggling to meet demand. More than 600,000 people rely on food charities each month; however, due to high demand, many go hungry. Over 6,000 people are turned away from food charities each month due to a lack of resources, according to Foodbank’s 2016 Hunger Report. More than a third of these are children.
Founded by Leader Community News and food charity FareShare, the appeal has raised over $3.2 million and tonnes of food for 147 charities during the nine years since it began.
Member of the Moorabbin congregation Susan Vinen saw a newspaper article on the appeal and felt she needed to do something to help. After speaking to local church leaders, efforts to support the initiative were coordinated through the local Relief Society organisation of the church.
The Feed Melbourne Appeal was asking for donations of rice and pasta, so members were invited to donate pasta, rice and pasta sauce. Within a few weeks church members from Mornington to Brighton collected hundreds of food items, which were picked up by a FareShare food van on June 14th in Moorabbin. Susan Vinen and local Relief Society leader, Fiona Ward helped to load the van, before it headed to the nearby Woolworths to collect more food donations.
“As Latter Day Saints we have a duty of care to our brothers and sisters,” said Fiona. “Our contribution makes a difference. We can all do our part to bear one another's burdens.”
The Relief Society is the largest women’s organisation in the world and is founded on faith, family and relief. Providing service to those in need in the community through projects such as the Feed Melbourne Appeal is just one of the ways that women in the Relief Society fulfill the organisation’s motto, ‘Charity never faileth’.
Find out how you can support families in need at feedmelbourne.org.au.