Esther Lauaki
1011meals
By Esther Lauaki
Fostering a community connection in Brimbank can be as simple as sharing a meal.
That’s why Taylors Hill resident Deepti Alurkar and her husband began delivering homemade meals earlier this year for those struggling with food insecurity as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The self-funded project has picked up traction in the past five months and Ms Alurkar and a team of volunteers distributed more than 750 meals in the past week.
Ms Alurkar, who heads up the Multicultural Association of Community Empowerment, said she started the food delivery initiative to help her neighbours and meet more people.
“As a migrant I realise the importance of family and friends because we arrived here and we didn’t know anyone.
“I started a social club with eight mums in a backyard so that we could get to know each other through food and learning some Indian dance and now we have about 500 mums.
“We started a not for profit organisation and through that we do a lot of initiatives, activities, donation drives and fundraising for the community.
“Everyone was being impacted by covid and people were losing jobs left, right and centre.
“Many people are facing this for the first time, they have a lot to deal with.”
Ms Alurkar said the service delivers “free meals with dignity, no questions asked”.
Dinners include homemade curries, pasta dishes, soups, fried rice.
At the height of the pandemic, volunteers were also delivering groceries to international
students and donating food parcels to council organisations.
“It’s a way to connect with our neighbours by distributing nutritious hot vegetarian meals and desserts,” Ms Alurkar said.
“I hope to motivate others to do the same. If everyone helps one person it makes the community a better place to live.”
