Community kitchen

A $7000 grant from the Melbourne Anglican Benevolent Society is helping Holy Trinity Hastings to create a Community Kitchen for the use of people with disabilities. The grant will pay for the dishwasher and extra sink required by Shire regulations in the church kitchen, which the parish is doubling in size.

In 2010 a new housing development was launched in Hastings close to the church. The development, which was seen as breaking new ground in supported housing, aims to make provision for tenants with a disability who need full-time care for as well as others able to live more independently. With Holy Trinity already having some links with people with disability, this seemed a logical target group for a Community Kitchen.

Trained volunteers will staff the Kitchen, teaching meal preparation based on sound nutrition and good budgeting.

The Vicar, the Revd Alex Packett, said this is one way of implementing the parish’s dream of connecting meaningfully with the local community.

“I believe one of the difficulties congregations at the edges of our Diocese face is feeling attached,” he said. “Lots of interesting things occur in Melbourne which it is not practical for us to attend and we can perceive ourselves to be at the uttermost ends of the earth! So to have the grant from the Benevolent Society is not only about money, but about feeling supported, recognised and encouraged by the wider Church.”