By Callum Ludwig
The community pantry at the Cire Community Hub in Yarra Junction has received a boost due to the generosity of a local couple.
Lilydale residents Peter and Colleen Mitt have been recently helping deliver frozen meals and donations from the pantry through their connection to the Life Ministry Church in Chirnside Park and noticed the program had probably outgrown their original freezer.
Colleen said she and Peter spoke about it as they noticed more and more clients on the books seeking meals from Cire.
“We just thought that we really do need to get them a bigger freezer, if we could consider it, so long story short we went ahead and did that,” she said.
“I’ve been on that journey where I’ve had very little, I relied on support and different community services myself personally so I really understand the struggle so this opportunity was just a no-brainer, to be honest,”
“We were there, we saw the need and we just met the need.”
Members of the Life Ministry Church regularly provide and donate to the program, as well as a few of those like Peter and Colleen who help deliver the meals.
Peter said they’re grateful and feel blessed that they are able that they can make those resources available to meet a community need and serve the church in a small, non-descript way.
“Being part of the church community, we want to honour not only God but also the church and the community, because that’s just the way we want to conduct ourselves, this is very much a small token gesture of being able to physically meet a service the community needs in a very simple way,” he said.
“It’s the way communities are supposed to operate, volunteering is a service that all people at some stage in their lives do need, and we know, especially in this day and age, there are a lot of people out there that are going without and are fortunate to have support services like Cire to help.”
