Hi everyone,

Lots happening this week in the lead up to our Christmas Makers’ Market this Saturday the 22nd of November! The weather is looking good - touch wood - and it’s shaping up to be a lovely day to celebrate another great year here at ACC. We have 25 stalls this year, so lots of opportunities to find perfect gifts.

And while you are shopping we’ll be running Christmas craft activities to keep the kids entertained, and naturally a barbecue to keep everyone happy. We’re also looking for volunteers to help out on the day - see more details later in this newsletter.

Alphington Open Studios will also be starting this weekend, and the inside of the centre will we transformed into a gallery space on both Saturday and Sunday to feature some awesome local artists. How exciting!

And before all this we have another great program lined up this week:

• Garden to Plate this morning from 11.30am-1pm - book online

• 3rd Monday of the Month Book Club tonight 7-8.30pm

• Tomorrow from 1-3pm we are running a special Preserves Group in preparation for the market on Saturday. We will be making jams, pickles and relishes, and we encourage everyone to come along if you can! And donate small clean jars if you have them hanging around …

• Toy Library will also be open tomorrow from 1-3pm

• And 3rd Tuesday of the Month Book Club will be meetomg tomorrow evening 7.30-9pm

• AAA Bowls at Alphington Bowls Club, Line Dancing at the Scout Hall and Alphington Playgroup here at the Centre Wednesday morning from 10am-12pm

• Armchair Theatre Wednesday from 1-3pm

• Crunch on Thursday from 12.30-2pm

• Alphington Arts will be running Thursday evening from 7.30-9.30pm and we will doing linocuts to make Christmas cards! This is a super fun activity and a great way to get into the Christmas spirit. We hope to see you there! Book in online.

• Community Garden and Craft Friday morning from 10am-12pm

• Community Lunch Friday 12-1pm

• AAA Art Friday 1-2pm

Looking forward to a very Christmassy week!

Cheers Leanne

Hi everyone,

We’re looking forward to seeing you this morning at Garden to Plate after last week’s holiday. We’re going to be cooking with the chives from our garden today. Also a reminder that our 2nd Monday of the month Book Club is on tonight at 7.30pm.

AAA Bowls is back this Wednesday after a break last week. It will be running from 10am-12pm at the Alphington Bowls Club and will run for 4 more weeks - with the last program on the 3rd of December. At the same time we’ll also have our Weekly Playgroup running here in the front garden and Line Dancing on at the Scout Hall (nooooo how to choose????). Then Armchair Theatre is again on at 1pm. Wednesday evening Keiko is also running Sound Healing with Crystal Bowls at 7pm.

We’re back again with Crunch this Thursday - keep reading and you might just get a sneak peek at the pretty cool things we get up to (or come along and join in - more people are very welcome)!

Friday we’ll see you once again at our Community Morning and Community Lunch, and AAA Arts will be running in the afternoon.

Lastly, we’re sorry to say that although the Men’s Breakfast is scheduled for this Saturday, it won’t be running as John is still injured. Look out for the next one happening in 2026, and until then we’re wishing him all the best!

Cheers, Leanne

Alphington Playgroup is back on Wednesday morning. Come along from 10am-12pm and make some local friends in the garden. Lots of lovely people attend (kids of course, and mums and dads and grandparents and carers) and there is space inside on rainy days. It costs $5 weekly. We’d love to see you.

AND … did you know we have Alphington Toy Library open at the same time? Well, Tuesdays AND Wednesdays … You can borrow up to 4 toys for 2 week bursts. Great for clutter busting at home, good for the environment … join up for $50 a year!

Also … we offer Birthday Party Hire of our space on Sundays. You can choose a morning or afternoon slot. 4 hours from $165. It saves you from cleaning your house and we have lots of great supplies on site to reduce single use plastic. If you are interested just visit our website to check out available times and book in.

This week join us for our Men’s Group on Tuesday night from 7pm. Call John to find out more 0439 899 352.

Or Playgroup on Wednesday morning at 10am. Also Line Dancing at 10am - at Alphington Scout Hall. Each costs $5. Just come along! There’s also Armchair Theatre on in the afternoon from 1.15pm. This is run by Darebin U3A.

On Wednesday evening we have Sound Healing with Keiko from 7.15-8pm. Just $10 for a super relaxing experience. Find out more or book in Sounddroplet@tutamail.com.

On Thursday we have the first Embracing Life and Death session from 1-3pm. Find out more or book in with Andrea, Andrea_babon@yahoo.com. And the Alphingtones Choir run at night over at St Andrews Uniting Church Fairfield from 7.30pm.

Finally Friday is our Community Morning - craft, gardening, community shed activities from 10am. Community Lunch at 12pm.

We hope to see you soon!

Cheers Leanne

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