We relaunched the Pakenham market!

Thanks to our ongoing partnership with VicHealth, we were able to relaunch the Pakenham market this month! It was devastating to have to suspend the market at the beginning of the pandemic, but we’re so glad to be back!

Full of excitement, the whole Community Grocer team drove down to the Outlook Community Centre in Pakenham for our first week back. We had not even finished setting up when our eager first customer arrived, which kicked-off a very busy day down in Pakenham. We were so surprised at how quickly word had spread around Pakenham about the market reopening - such a testament to how connected the people are in Pakenham and how important fresh produce is to the locals. We can’t wait to welcome even more customers once the 5km shopping radius limit eases and more people begin to hear about the market.

It felt odd to be relaunching a market during a pandemic, particularly when we’re used to launching markets to large crowds, with cakes, live music and speeches. But despite the masks and social distancing, we could already feel a sense of community at the market. We can’t wait to do our ceremonial watermelon-cutting and properly welcome everyone to our market when restrictions ease.

Nadhirah, our wonderful Heidelberg West Market Manager, will be running the Pakenham market for the first few months before we start the process of looking for a new manager local to the area. Over the next couple of weeks, Bella and Tess will join her to help pack 125 fruit and vegetable boxes that are being distributed to local food relief agencies, thanks to funding from Moving Feast.

You can pre-order a box online through Open Food Network: Click here, or shop directly from the market at the Community Outlook Centre, 24 Toomuc Valley Rd, from 9 am-1 pm on Thursdays.

We are always on the lookout for volunteers, so if you can commit to a four hour shift for at least two months, please fill out a form: Click here.

Thank you to everyone who came down or spread the word. It is so great to be back! We’d love to reconnect with old customers and welcome new ones, so come on down if you’re in the area.

1000 boxes for residents living in the public housing estates Under Lockdown

Wow! What a busy week it has been over here at The Community Grocer!

After receiving the news that the public housing estates in Flemington, Kensington and North Melbourne were going into a hard lockdown, we knew we had to work quickly to ensure that fresh, nutritious and culturally appropriate food would be available to all residents.  

For all of us here at The Community Grocer, the news hit so close to home. Currently, two of our markets (Fitzroy and Carlton) are operating on public housing estates, and we had a market at Flemington public housing estates, one of those currently in hard lockdown, up until June 2019.

For us, this was our community and we knew they needed our support. We have such love for the vibrant communities living within public housing estates, so we were determined to help any way we could. 

Within 24 hours of receiving the call, our first delivery of 1000 fresh, nutritious and culturally appropriate fruit and vegetable boxes had made its way to the housing estates. We called on our amazing partners from within Moving Feast (the collective of social enterprises joining forces to create a pandemic food response), including Fruit2Work and Melbourne Farmers’ Markets, to supply, prepare, pack and deliver these boxes.

Russell Shields, Founder and Chair of The Community Grocer, strongly believes that it is vital that the residents experiencing a hard lockdown are treated with dignity and provided with familiar and nutritious food. 

“I can’t imagine the fear and anxiety that people in the lockdown towers are going through. The choice of their next meal has been taken away from them – that’s why it’s so important the food we collectively provide is full of health and nutrition.”

— Russell Shields

We put a lot of thought into what would go into three different types of boxes for residents to cater to different cultural backgrounds. For many years we have been providing culturally appropriate food at our markets and this helped us fill the boxes with foods we know our customers from the public housing estates eat and cook with - from ginger to okra to Chinese broccoli, for example. We believe that this shows respect to the residents and provides them with the choice to cook the meals they are familiar with and enjoy. 

“Food is dignity, and we can show how much we care by the fresh food boxes we provide. I know each one has been individually packed full of goodness and hope.”

— Russell Shields

The Community Grocer and Fawkner Commons: Adapting to COVID-19

We wanted to share with you exactly what has been going on in Fawkner and how we’ve partnered with Fawkner Commons.

You may have seen that our Fawkner market was unfortunately closed to the public as COVID-19 restrictions gradually limited our ability to function as a market. We quickly adapted and scaled our fruit and veggie box scheme to ensure Fawkner residents still had access to affordable, high-quality fresh fruit and vegetables.

Our partnership with Fawkner Commons has allowed us to expand this even further. Since the start of May, we’ve been packing around 40 boxes a week for pick-up from Fawkner Bowls Club and several hub pick-up points; customers have also had the option to add products from an ever-expanding list of goodies from various local food businesses and organisations.

Now with the area back in lockdown in July, Fawkner Commons is now offering home delivery! This means locals can get their fruit and vegetables delivered straight to their doorstep.

So what is Fawkner Commons? Fawkner Commons is a new contactless box distribution hub operating out of Fawkner Bowls Club. This initiative comes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has left many households without jobs or on a reduced income and looking for alternatives to crowded supermarkets.

The hub has now brought together multiple local food businesses including Boom Foods, Fawkner Food Bowls, Der Partisan Bakery, Fawkner Wholefoods Collective, Saint David Dairy and Alberto’s Delicacies.

Workers and volunteers pack boxes bright and early on a Wednesday morning for home delivery in Fawkner, Glenroy, Hadfield and Merlynston the same day.

 Fawkner Commons provides healthy, affordable food options with the safety of being completely contactless!

We couldn’t be more excited about Fawkner Commons and more proud of the Fawkner community! We have had so many expressions of interest from residents to volunteer or to donate; demonstrating the tenacity of the Fawkner community to support each other.

Customers are able to order a small, medium, large or extra-large fruit and vegetable box, along with a variety of other locally sourced food options, through Open Food Network (follow this link) from Friday until midnight on Sunday for delivery on Wednesday.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Jen and Sally from Fawkner Food Bowls, who have been working so hard to co-ordinate Fawkner Commons while providing food relief packages to Moreland residents. It has been an inspiration and a delight to work with you both.

The Community Grocer Has Partnered With VicHealth

VicHealth and The Community Grocer are joining forces to give people greater access to high-quality, affordable fruit and vegetables in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

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The Community Grocer will receive a $150,000 VicHealth Partnership Grant to address increased demand and ensure more locals can benefit from the initiative. 

VicHealth CEO Dr. Sandro Demaio said access to low-cost fruit and vegetables is more important than ever right now.

“This is all about getting more fresh, Victorian produce into the hands of more Victorians. We’re excited to be supporting The Community Grocer to expand its fantastic work in providing local communities, in particular people on low-incomes, with convenient access to fresh, affordable produce,” Dr. Demaio said.

“Eating a healthy diet can help us avoid long-term health problems, like type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers, but it can also support our immune system.

“We know the cost of food is rising and the coronavirus pandemic has affected people in various ways, putting fresh fruit and vegetables out of reach for many Victorian households.

“This partnership will ensure more communities, particularly those with low-income households, can put fresh, local fruit and veggies on the table now, and for months and years to come. The markets also give people connection and purpose while following physical distancing measures, which is so important while many in our community are feeling isolated, anxious and lonely as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.”

The Community Grocer Founder Russell Shields said with many Melburnians struggling to afford and source healthy food at the moment, the organisation is experiencing greater demand.

“We’ve spoken with customers who have lost jobs and have serious concerns about being able to afford bills or feed themselves and their families. We are seeing many new customers at our markets because coronavirus has put more households at risk of food insecurity,” Mr Shields said.

“With supermarket prices high and often lacking culturally appropriate produce, many of our customers are solely relying on our markets for fresh fruits and vegetables. They’re buying more from us than ever before, because it’s high quality and much more affordable"

Over the next 14 months, The Community Grocer will use the $150,000 VicHealth grant to reach new communities, including through new markets, innovative delivery schemes and establishing a centralised Community Distribution Centre in partnership with other organisations.

COVID-19 Update

The health and safety of our customers, volunteers and team members is our number one priority at The Community Grocer. We are monitoring closely the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and to be proactive in our approach we have put several measures in place. Food Markets, like retailers, have been excluded from the list of banned events and until further notice, we will continue to trade and support our local communities with access to fresh food. 

To ensure your safety we are following guidelines from the Federal Department of Health by isolating any team members or volunteers who have recently returned from overseas (from any country) from coming to The Community Grocer markets. Some markets may be running with fewer volunteers than normal for this reason so we’ll appreciate your patience during busy periods. We are also providing accessible hand sanitiser at every market and are working with all our volunteers and team to ensure they understand good hand hygiene and are implementing this in their volunteering role.

We ask that if you, our customers, have any symptoms (fever, coughing, sore throat, fatigue, and/or shortness of breath) that you stay home as per current guidelines and not attend our markets. If you have returned from overseas since the 16th of March, we also ask that you not attend our markets in line with the State Government direction to self-isolate.  

We know our markets serve vulnerable members of our community and we don’t want to put anyone at risk. If you are self-isolating and in need of food, get in touch with the market manager at your local market and we will do our best to help in whatever way we can.

Many people are feeling the pressure of food insecurity with the craziness that is going on in our supermarkets and we feel our role in providing access to quality, affordable fresh produce is as important as ever. Our produce is on average 60% cheaper than surrounding outlets and this is likely to be so important for those who are struggling to afford to buy food in bulk at the moment. We will continue to serve our community members as long as we can as long as this isn’t it conflict with current guidelines. So shop with us to support your community and allow us to continue to provide access to fruit and veg to people who need it most.