A phenomenal response to The Frugal Feast

23 December 2014

Our Food Hub volunteers

The past several weeks have been amazing – we can not believe the response we’ve had to our Frugal Feast fundraising appeal, and to be honest, we’re still reeling from it!

When we were developing the campaign for The Frugal Feast, we were really thinking about what it must be like to weather the festive season – a time of over-indulgence and expense for many – when you have a low income, and might be struggling to provide for yourself and your family.

Our Food Hub provides free and healthy food to people in need in the Tuggeranong region, and we experience a heightened demand over November and December. We wanted to be able to alleviate this pressure for the families we work with.

We started thinking about getting to the roots of what the festive season is really about, which is family and friendships, celebrating our relationships, and sharing. Through The Frugal Feast, we wanted to change the conversation, and to look towards these core values.

And we were completely blown away by the response from Canberrans!

Gai Brodtmann visits our Food Hub to drop off a generous donation.

Whether it was attending events during our week of campaign activities, donating food, hosting drives at work, or buying a copy of The Frugal Feast recipe book, our community has given generously and gifted fellow Canberrans with hearty, healthy meals this Christmas.

Our target was to raise $10,000, but with your help, we have reached over $11,788 – the best outcome of any fundraising appeal we have ever held.

We want to thank everyone who donated, shared a link to our website, joined the conversation online, donated their time to host an event, or supported us with their recipes and their words. In particular, we received a very generous donation from the Soroptomists International of Canberra, of $2,500 to make food hampers for Food Hub clients – a huge thank you for such an amazing contribution!

But mostly, we want to thank our amazing Food Hub volunteers, who give up their time each week to stock the shelves, assist our clients, and keep the whole operation running smoothly – none of this would be possible without their compassion and dedication.

From all of us at YWCA Canberra, we hope you have a safe and happy festive season!

Check out the gallery below for some highlights from The Frugal Feast!