Carevan Blacktown is overjoyed to report that we have become one of the many charities supported by the amazing organisation that is OzHarvest.
OzHarvest’s mission to “Nourish our Country by stopping good food from going to waste and delivering it to charities that help feed people in need” see’s this inspirational group gathering, cooking and distributing meals, pantry items, fresh food and veg to those most in need of this care and to charities, such as Carevan Blacktown.
Our part in this wonderful new collaboration is to do what we do best, and distribute these black and gold hampers of goodness and nutrition to the Carevan community who visit us each week for a meal, a cuppa and some extra kindness to support and nurture our most vulnerable community members.
We are enormously grateful to have been added to the OzHarvest family of recipients and cannot thank this inspirational, hardworking (and happy) team enough for their work in setting up this collaboration with Carevan Blacktown.
We look forward to working together with Ozharvest into the future and making things a little bit brighter still every week for those who visit Carevan Blacktown.
Visit the OzHarvest website to find out more about this ‘golden’ organisation and the wonderful work they do across the country and now supporting the Carevan and the community we serve.
Thank you so very much
https://www.ozharvest.org
https://www.ozharvest.org/who-we-are/
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead
Over the last couple of weeks, Carevan Blacktown has had the wonderful opportunity to hold 2 Bunnings BBQs. This sizzling support is a much-loved Bunnings tradition and vital for many charitable organisations, including our little charity. It’s great to be able to do them again and we are HUGELY appreciative of the opportunity given us by Rouse Hill Bunnings, to raise some much need funds in this fun and interactive way.
Carevan called upon our sparkling, dancing, dedicated, hard-working and truly generous volunteers and supporters, at short notice, and were able to put together these two events with plenty of willing hands and generous donations of food enabling us to run two successful days … including today, Valentine’s day when the word LOVE and all variations sentiment, was all about… even in the Bunnings car park… and was at the heart of the amazing work our Carevan Family achieves
We had singing … some dancing … lots of sausages and LOVEly onions …and a whole lot of goodwill and care, put into action… more than just a red hearted card … our people came out to BE the CARE in Carevan.
Without our volunteers, we could not conduct meal services and our mission would be just a nice idea… our volunteers are AWESOME and on weeks like the past two, that’s never more obvious.
Huge Valentine’s LOVE to our BBQ volunteers Kym, KimBAlee, Tracey, Andrew, Taylor, Joel, Karenza, Annie and Stewart, Bruce, Jade, Daniel, Karen and Paul and Liam.. And to all our amazing team of volunteers who support Carevan week in and week out
Huge red virtual Roses to Naomi, Shahereen, Norwest Sunrise Rotary and Lions club for the donations of food… we cooked it up and served it with the extra dash of kindness that your donations bring!
Extra special shout out to our ‘protein/ bakery manager’ Tracey for work behind the scenes, for Kym who left today’s shindig to go home and make meals for Tuesday evening, to Taylor for the Technical support and for KimBAlee for the signs (and her dad) for the blackboard of LOVE … all the extra Carevan condiments that make it all so delicious!
Also, in our normal non-BBQ-ing world of Tuesday evening this week… a big beautiful bouquet to the Lalor Park Community Hub Markets, for their generous donation to Carevan and to Glaiza and Shahereen for their amazing kindness and generous donations… and to Glenda, Marlene and Daniel (and Oscar) for the delivery of clothing … we are truly, truly grateful ..
Finally, a big HUG (socially distanced of course) to Tina, Georgina and Tianna who gave up their evening to help with Tuesday’s service, managing clothing distribution like old hands. We cannot thank you all enough!
We are blessed by support in all forms and fashions and as Margaret Mead said ..we have No doubt this group of committed citizens can change the world.. or at least our little bit of it
Happy Valentine’s day AMAZING people
Follow the link to Carevan Blacktown’s Facebook page and join us for a training session on February 18th at 7pm
https://fb.me/e/fS4qK4qPv
Carevan is now the very lucky recipient of a regular supply of freshly laid eggs, courtesy of some of the funkiest named chickens in the neighbourhood. 🐓
These fine feathered friends; Edna, Cassie, Pearl, Avery, Ginger, Daphne, Callie, Olive, Honey and Irene, have grown from little chicks to egg-laying beauties, and are now honorary volunteers for Carevan. 🐥
The girls will be providing freshly laid ‘eggyness’ direct to Norwest’s Carevan cooking program for meal preparation and we are EGGstatic to have them in the hen house 🥚
We were EGGcited to meet with the chook’s custodians; Brenda, Merryn, Piper and Mackenzie on Tuesday evening, along with the ‘spokes-chook’ Callie, a spectacular spotty feathered beauty, who came along in a special carry pack! 🐣
AND In another first for Carevan, Sophie and Linh, two lovely local hairdressers, have offered us their skillset and time to assist any of our guests who would like to trim their human feathers. 🥚 This lovely offer was taken up by 6 or so very happy guests at the first event and will be a regular gig at Carevan’s evenings out. We are so grateful for the ladies’ generous gift of community care. 🐓
So very many good eggs in the community, who reach out each and every week, to help Carevan and those we serve in some way. We thank you ALL for the thought, hard work, innovation, kindness and generosity of spirit and deed… you ALL help us keep Carevan sunny side up. 🐓
Carevan Blacktown meets every Tuesday evening at Lalor Park Community Hall
We are busy setting up and packing hampers from 6:30 and open doors at 7:30 pm.
We serve hot nutritious meals to all those who come along and provide
a variety of other goods provided to Carevan by our generous contributors.
Carevan creates a welcoming venue to share a meal and an evening with others,
fostering a sense of community and providing support for those in need.
Everyone is welcome
https://www.facebook.com/CarevanBlacktown
carevanblacktown.org.au
Lalor Park Library; Cnr. Freeman Street and Northcott Road, Lalor Park
Carevan Blacktown was founded in 2011 and is an affiliate of The Carevan Foundation formed By Dr John Brabant in Albury many years earlier. Members of the Blacktown local area, who were friends of Dr Brabant, saw a need for a similar service in the local area and established Carevan Blacktown.
Carevan Blacktown is a smaller entity and our weekly meal service is the focal point of our efforts, but we are no less dedicated to the objective to serve those less fortunate than ourselves. Like the Foundation, we aim to promote and put into practice the mission “…to create a sense of identity, a sense of belonging and a sense of achievement. … focused on changing “us” and “them” to become “we…”.
Carevan serves those battling hardship and disadvantage of all kind; homelessness, financial hardship, isolation and loneliness principal among these. We strive to provide a meal of substance for the body, while meeting the bigger objective of social inclusion across all demographics and all circumstance.
Each week Carevan provides a meal service in Lalor Park Community hall. Run by a team of dedicated and diligent volunteers, we create a warm, welcoming and non-judgemental setting. The community are able to come together to share a meal and some time, to connect with each other and with a community that cares for them.
Carevan collects and supplies fruit and vegetables from local businesses, donated to supplement the weekly meal service. We provide take away meals to accommodate families and individuals into the week, extras that might otherwise not be affordable or accessible.
Carevan works in collaboration with all our supporters, who donate time, food, money, items of care and support, delivering these goods each week to those most in need.
Our business supporters include The Masonic Club Blacktown, Roseville and Chatswood Rotary Club and the Richmond Rotary Club, Dearest Lips, Genworth Financial, Daily Fresh and of course the Norwest and Tyndale Christian Schools who make and store the meals we serve each week.
We were lucky enough to be recipients of the Commonwealth Bank’s ‘CommBank Staff Foundation Community Grant’ in 2020 and the Federal Office of Greenway’s community grant 2018, which enabled the purchase of a second hand van in early 2019 to replace the old and iconic van, in which the Carevan had begun in Blacktown.
And of course, the backbone of our work is the countless individuals who reach out to Carevan to donate all manner of contributions. Without our amazing community support, we would truly just be a van!
Carevan conducts blanket and clothing appeals, supply hygiene and general home care products and are the conduit for a generous community donating items to those in need, on the community’s behalf.
Carevan are growing year by year and our need for community support does not diminish with this growth. We are in desperate need of a warehouse for example, in which to store the items delivered and donated to us, with which to serve the community with.
We are in constant weekly need of consumables such as plates, takeaway containers, disposable cutlery, serving foil trays, pantry items and long-life milk and custard just to name a few!
We are enormously grateful to all those who support our endeavours and follow our work. We would love you to follow us on Facebook, share our postings and join with us in making life a little easier for those less fortunate than ourselves.
And we’d especially love to hear from you if you have a storage solution for us 🙂