Last week Melbourne Farmers Market was awarded the national ‘Outstanding Farmers Market Community Initiative’ for work tackling food security in Melbourne.

This initiative is a credit to the Moving Feast partnership.

In lockdown when farmers were struggling to sell produce in the downturn of hospitality and, at the same time so many vulnerable Victorians were without fresh food, MFM connected the dots.

Since then they have sourced almost 50 tonnes of local, seasonal, high-quality food to share with partners DIVRS (Darebin Information Volunteer Resource Service), Cultivating Community and STREAT who work directly with people in need in the City of Darebin, Yarra and Melbourne.

They also set about growing more food at Alphington Community Food Hub to share with vulnerable communities into the future - the boxes along the Yarana Road perimeter are managed by DIVRS and STREAT as part of a ‘grow it forward’ project - where the community grows and shares with others.

Super hey? Aren’t we lucky to have such great community initiatives incubated in our neighbourhood!

We received an email from Sean from the Department of Justice and Community Safety looking for people who would be interested in becoming Justices of the Peace (JPs) across the City of Yarra local government area.

He noted,

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These highly-respected volunteer roles play an important role in the Justice system and provide a valuable authorised witnessing service to all members of the community.

We’re inviting people to register for a one-hour information session that provides detail about the role and an opportunity to meet staff from the Honorary Justice Services support team.

Those interested can register for one of four session dates at this link.

How fabulous!

Alphington Food Hub is delighted to welcome local legends Northcote Bakeshop to the neighbourhood. It’s been a long time coming!  

Northcote Bakeshop are an institution on High Street in Northcote, recently notching up 10 years of deliciousness and leadership in community initiatives. Peter and Hiruni have initiated many sustainability networks and projects, including produce swaps and pay it forward programs through COVID19. Recently Hiruni was recognised as Citizen of the Year by Darebin City Council, particularly for her work establishing the Wangim Cup project across Darebin reducing coffee cups going to landfill.

And now they are opening a cafe just up the road at the Melbourne Farmers Market site.

The café will offer fabulous coffee, fresh loaves of sourdough and pastries daily plus a range of sandwiches. All handmade, with local ingredients.

Alphington Bakeshop opens Friday and Saturday 8am-2pm and is accessible through the pedestrian gate on the corner of Yarana Road.

On Sundays it will open from 9am-2pm as part of the market offering - with access through the main gates.

And … we look forward to seeing them open more often towards summer when the garden café really blooms! The space will unfold as they settle in and the weather improves.

In the meantime, you can rug up and embrace the covered, outdoor space with something nourishing to keep you warm.

Thanks Elaine for these gorgeous teeny tiny fingerless mittens! They’re super cute. We’ve always got wonderful volunteers like Elaine and Sandra (and Frank who knits hats) who repurpose donated wool … turning it into blankets and scarves and all sorts of wonderful things that we sell for fundraising (to support our programs) at our makers markets etc.

If you ever have wool (8ply or fatter is ideal) that needs a new home think of us … we love ❤️ donations!

A CREATIVE EXPERIMENT

Inspired by David Whyte's Three Illusions, local artist Luke Edwards is hosting Warm August Nights for two nights in August at the Alphington Bowls Club (Wednesday 17 & 24). These evenings will explore the illusions through music and word, dive deep into heartbreak and consider the way of wholehearted living. Tickets available here.

It sounds pretty interesting right? Isn’t it fabulous that ABC supports local artists to create these opportunities in our local area.