THANKS to the efforts of the Forrestfield Seventh Day Adventist Church (SDA) families in Kalamunda and Forrestfield are receiving much needed emergency food relief and support.

The church has partnered with SecondBite through their Community Connect program and collect food weekly from Coles with volunteer drivers distributing the food to families in the area.

SecondBite delivers food direct to Advent Park in Maida Vale each week from their new 2000sqm Kewdale warehouse, where it is stored in a cool room and sorted for distribution among the community.

“We used to have to go and collect food from SecondBite at their other warehouse but now with the expansion of the Kewdale warehouse and all the new trucks they have, they deliver it direct to us at Advent Park, which makes it so much easier for us to access food for the community,” Forrestfield SDA Church pastor John Horvath said .

Pastor John is also the director of the Adventist Development Relief Agency (ADRA).

“For over 10 years we have been blessed that the council has allowed us to hire a space at 24 Anderson Road in Forrestfield, but we are trying to negotiate with the council to let us use some more of the facilities there on an ongoing basis,” he said.

“This is so that we have a space where we can continue the community garden that the Men’s Shed built up before they relocated, and have a storeroom and cool room on site. It would be a base centre for us the community  access, and we can coordinate all our services from the one location.

“If we had our own space like that, we could expand our assistance to those in need and help so many more people in the community. What we would love to do is use all the fresh fruit and vegetables grown from the community garden and combine that with all our SecondBite donations.

Pastor John said it would mean more people could come and collect food.

“We could help more unemployed community members and upskill them in landscaping and gardening and food preparation, and it would give those contributing more meaning and purpose, growing food in the garden and combining it with SecondBite donations to help others,” he said.

“It is a great dream we have for the community here, but we need council support.

“A lot of our community are struggling with higher food prices, and they can see we are taking the initiative to try and help. Every day we find more people who are really struggling, and they always let us know that our support is appreciated.

“We want to continue that as best we can and make the most of the generous donations we get from partners like SecondBite.”