In November 2018, Random Acts encouraged all of our supporters to take part in our annual Endure4Kindness (E4K) event, and as always, you blew us away with your creativity and kindness. Money raised during E4K allows us to sponsor acts of kindness all around the world. Funds from E4K 2018 are also going toward fighting childhood hunger. Whether you challenged yourself with your own E4K activity, spread the word on social media, supported others with their E4K fundraising, or donated to The Bad Idea Tour, your participation helps to make the world a better place. We love being able to share some of the ways that your hard work is helping to fight food insecurity.
Next stop…Sydney, Australia!
#RANoHungryChild provided the Asylum Seekers Centre with much needed cooking oil.
Remembering Refugees
During the fall of 2018, our staff participated in a Getting Kind for Refugees campaign. We talked about some of the challenges that refugees face after arriving in their new countries and shared information on how we can all help refugees to feel more at home in our communities. As you may have guessed, food insecurity is one of the many things refugee families struggle with while trying to adjust to a brand new life.
Asylum Seekers Centre
The Asylum Seekers Centre is a nonprofit located in Newton, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. Their goal is to provide a safe, welcoming environment for both refugee families and those still in the process of being granted asylum in Australia. The Asylum Seekers Centre offers various resources, including legal aid, housing, health care, financial assistance, employment assistance, education, LGBT+ support, food, and social and recreational activities. Approximately 4,000 people, including 1,000 children, depend on these resources from the Centre.
One way that the Asylum Seekers Centre helps to fight food insecurity among refugee families is by offering a free lunch at its community center every weekday. This lunch is open to people visiting the center and is often used as a way for families to meet others in their new community. During the rest of the day, there is a continuous supply of free coffee, tea, and breakfast cereals that visitors can enjoy. Families are also welcome to visit the Asylum Seeker Centre’s free food store, where they can stock up on groceries weekly, toiletries monthly, and fresh produce whenever stock is available.
Asylum Seekers Centre staff stock the food pantry with #RANoHungryChild donations
Working Toward a Change
Public Relations Officer Natalie Fisher wanted to use #RANoHungryChild funds to help stock the Asylum Seeker Centre’s free food store for the holiday season. When telling us about her plan, she explained exactly why helping an organization that focuses on refugees was so important to her.
“Resources available to help recently settled or settling refugees are thin on the ground here in Australia,” she said. “There are only a few charities and nonprofits that aid refugees. They’re certainly not heavily government funded and they’re not a high priority or well-promoted charitable cause to the public.”
Stocking Up
Natalie wanted to make sure that our #RANoHungryChild donation made the greatest positive impact possible. She checked in with Jenny, the Asylum Seeker Centre’s nutritional education and social support coordinator, to learn about what the Centre needed most. For example, the Centre was completely out of cooking oil, which is rationed for monthly distribution because of the frequent shortage. Natalie focused on cooking oil, as well as other items from the Centre’s wish list. In total, she was able to use Random Acts funding to donate 340 items to stock the free food store.