October Outreach
Who: ARGP and our local community
What: Food drive for the homeless and disadvantaged in the City of Port Phillip
When: October
Where: Reception, 38 Albert Road, South Melbourne.
How: Drop your items off at 38 Albert Road, South Melbourne, we will deliver them to Father Bob’s at the end of the month.
At ARGP we want to make a difference. That’s our purpose. That’s our mission. Our approach to this has been through providing exceptional health care to residents and visitors of South Melbourne. However, we realise there are many more ways to help improve the lives of our local community, so we’ve searched for high-impact local charities who can support our goals and extend our care to those we wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to work with.
That’s how we’ve found The Father Bob Maguire Foundation, which is a Melbourne based and registered charity that provides food relief, social inclusion, and educational support across a range of services so that no one gets left behind.
In particular, the role of the Father Bob Maguire Foundation is to help end homelessness and disadvantage. They aim to facilitate the establishment of a caring community, by the community, for the community, so it’s only natural that we’ve felt compelled to get involved.
In order to fully support this vision, the Foundation runs a ‘community pantry’ which provides a warm and welcome place to those experiencing food insecurity and hardship.
We couldn’t support this initiative more! There is an enduring commitment to social justice throughout the team at ARGP. We recognize the impact of homelessness, although it is primarily a housing problem, it comes with many compounding challenges such as food insecurity.
Data from the 2016 Census reveals that The City of Port Phillip is home to the 4th largest number of homeless people in the state. Thankfully, there are various emergency accommodation options for these community members, yet their food supply is not as well secured, and that’s where we’re aiming to make a difference.
This October, we’re going to run a food drive, aimed at collecting high-value items such as breakfast cereals, long life milks, tinned items, packet soups, instant noodles, fruit juices, jams, honey, and tea, coffee, and sugar. In addition, the Father Bob Maguire Foundation has advised us that toothpaste and toothbrushes, toilet paper, and laundry powders are also in short supply.
We are encouraging anyone who can afford to donate these items to please bring them with you during your next appointments, or to simply drop them off at our clinic and we’ll make a bulk delivery at the end of the month. Any amount helps.
You can find out more about Father Bob’s here: https://www.fatherbobs.com/