In an effort to support the community during the pandemic, a mental health organisation has put up a COVID-19 45-day meal initiative.
“We are very much aware that people are going through tough times and so Mental Health Foundation Australia together with other generous sponsors and donors decided to do the 45-day meal initiative,” says MHFA’s mental health ambassador Lora Love.
Highlights
- A mental health organisation has put up a COVID-19 45-day meal initiative
- Instead of donating money, mental health volunteers cook over a thousand meals for the community
- Aside from promoting mental health, the group wants to focus on providing food for the community
Ms Lora Love shares that aside from promoting the importance of mental health, providing food for the community is something that they want to focus this pandemic.
“There are a lot of people and friends who are really wanting to do something and a lot of people are willing to donate. So instead of giving money, we wanted to do the basics like being able to provide food for the community.”
Under the meal initiative, the group has fed thousands of people.
“International students are definitely one of the recipients and also a list of recipients under the Salvation army. The salvation army has a list of groups and places where they deliver the food.”
Now on their 40th day (11 September), Ms Lora Love is proud to say that their organisation has been doing the initiative everyday since the start of August.
“We do it everyday. One of the sponsors have their own industrial kitchen so they have decided to lend it to us. We had a team from Philippines, Malaysia and India but we were all gathered in different kitchenette.”
She adds on a single day, they were able to cook over a thousand meals.
“There were six nations who cooked that day and per team we were able to cook around 200 food packs so together with the other teams, collectively we cooked a thousand meals for that day.”
The group also cooked healthy meals while following the COVID-19 protocols in the kitchen.
Mental health volunteers cook meals for the community under a 45-day meal initiative. Source: Lora Love
“We want to keep it simple but also healthy. So all the meals were vegetarian just to keep it safe in case some people don’t eat meat. Of course, we followed the COVID-19 protocols and definitely they were strict about it. In fact, there were a lot of people who were generous and willing to help out but not everyone was allowed to be there.”
Ms Lora love shares that cooking for people in need is a humbling experience for her and she is grateful that she is able to help even in a very simple way.
“I guess for us, we are blessed that we still have our jobs and we are able to bring food on our table but there are people who are having a tough life so to be able to help and become a part of a group that is impacting the life of others is very humbling."
ALSO LISTEN/READ
