Through September we are one of the projects that you can select to support with your token in the Local Matters jars at Grill’d. So, if you are down at Station Street and keen for a burger look out for us … and vote!

And thanks Grill’d for supporting all the great local community things that happen in our neighbourhood!

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!

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.

This week we had a donation of apples 🍏 picked straight from the tree delivered to us.

We’ll be using them to make some preserves and to do some community cooking and we also ate some at Morning Tea in the Garden on Friday … and sent some home with those that came along - everyone was very appreciative!

And … any spares will be sent over the the ASRC.

Thanks so much Bella for thinking of us and dropping them in!

If you ever have excess fruit and veggies 🥦 🥕 in your home garden (or on your rural property like Bella) we’re always very pleased to find a use for them - whether that be here - we use them for preserves, weekly morning tea or food relief, or at the ASRC - the donations we send their way go into their fresh food program.

Just give us a call or drop in when we are open!

Betty recently contacted us to enquire about a stall at one of our makers markets. She is looking to spread the word and sell some copies of her new cook book, My Vegan Cookbook.

Leanne will be working on ideas for our programming for the remainder of the year very soon. And we do hope Betty will book a stall with us when we have our next makers market in our calendar.

In the meantime we can help Betty by sharing her website with you. If you are interested in vegan cooking then take a look at Betty’s site here.