Woolworths helps out Ark Centre’s Pay It Forward program
Over the past few months, ARK Centre has distributed close to 1000 meals around the community to families and individuals that have been doing it tough.
Woolworths’ Rob Wilson donates gift cards to Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann for Pay it Forward
Talk about how people are ‘doing it tough’ during this pandemic plays out in so many ways.
Older seniors who live on their own missing out on contact with loved ones, struggling to navigate online shopping and too afraid to leave the house. Younger couples who are bringing their first child into the world without the assistance of parents, siblings and friends as they were expecting. Families who have lost a loved one, in Melbourne, interstate or overseas and can’t mourn as religious or cultural tradition would dictate and can’t be with their families in a time of tragedy and grief. So many have lost their jobs and are increasingly unsure where or when the next opportunity will present. Community members with mental health issues whose usual modes of support cannot be accessed. Families who are stranded in Melbourne far away from their families.These are just some of the kinds of people the joint ARK Centre Pay it Forward initiative has been able to support.
Providing a meal is more than just ensuring full bellies though of course, that’s so important. It’s providing connection, a point of contact (zero contact deliveries actually but a point of human interaction), it’s making sure that people, perhaps vulnerable and certainly anxious and scared, feel seen, acknowledged and most of all know that there is help, they are not alone and there is somewhere they can turn. Entirely anonymously if they wish which is often the case.
Woolworths at Melbourne’s Hawthorn East have helped the program by donating $3,500 in $50 gift cards.
