There’s no such thing as a typical day at Kew-based Boroondara Community Outreach (BCO).
It’s supposed to be admin day but coordinator Reverend Natalie Dixon-Monu is aproned-up and roasting an ovenful of donated lamb to be packaged into emergency meals. She’s waiting for the family of a local man, earlier reported missing, so they can arrange his funeral. And last night she delivered fresh clothes and dinner to a Boroondara man living in a dementia ward.
‘Everything and anything,’ says Natalie. ‘Whatever needs to be done we just try to do it.
From food parcels to fun
That includes making thousands of emergency meals a month, hundreds of food and essentials parcels, applying for utility grants for clients, attending medical appointments, sewing on a button. Natalie’s an emergency contact for more people than she can name. ‘Sometimes they just don’t have anybody else,’ she explains.
Then there’s the fun stuff. BCO has a choir, a band and a ukulele group. They put on lunch 3 days a week, run art and craft groups and one-off classes or pamper days. Its community space is a place for isolated people to belong.
‘There’s a lot of stuff I can’t change about people’s lives – addictions or their mental health,’ says Natalie. ‘You can’t fix the deficit, but we can value add and that’s about community and connection.’
BCO brings together sources of funding, donations, support and volunteers to meet each need as it arises. Local Rotary clubs are ‘incredibly’ supportive, as are Boroondara businesses and supermarkets, churches and schools that fundraise and volunteer.
Newly in need
During COVID lockdowns BCO was making 600 to 800 emergency meals a week. Things improved in 2022 until the cost of living crisis kicked in. Its numbers are now up 52% from 2022 levels. And Natalie's regulars are joined by new people in need every week.
Many have never needed emergency relief before. They might be at risk of homelessness because of illness or a financial or relationship crisis. One young woman broke her arm and couldn’t work at her casual bar job for 6 weeks. She borrowed money for rent but couldn’t afford food while she waited for Centrelink payments to start.
‘We just fed her for 6 weeks, topped up her phone and her myki so she could get to appointments,’ says Natalie. ‘Those people we can hold for that patch so they don’t end up homeless. We keep their nose above water.
Natalie’s asking for your help this Christmas...
How you can help
Christmas is big at BCO. They put on a Christmas Day lunch, make takeaway packs so families can cook a Christmas meal at home, and find gifts for the 50 children on their books. And they pack 600 hampers with Christmas goodies and essentials, which they deliver to Boroondara people in social housing, rooming houses and psychiatric wards.
This year they need:
- jars or sachets of instant coffee
- muesli bars and shortbread
- shampoo and conditioner
- deodorant, body sprays, aftershave and perfumes
- bodywash and soap.
You can drop at BCO or donate via their supermarket hamper drive. Shop at Coles or Woolworths in Kew, or Camberwell Woolworths, on 30 November or 1, 7 or 8 December, 12 pm to 6 pm. Buy items from the list above and drop in BCO crates at the supermarket.
For more ways you can help BCO – including donating money, goods or volunteering – visit the Boroondara Community Outreach website.