Paul Bibby
Locals have been digging deep to help the Byron Community Centre support the Shire’s most vulnerable during the COVID-19 crisis.
The Centre says that it has seen a significant increase in donations over the past two months after it put out the call for help in early March.
This has helped the centre provide a significant increase in services, helping it meet the rapidly growing demand from locals experiencing difficulty and distress.
The Byron Community Pantry has been particularly busy, providing ready-made meals to hundreds of locals.
‘We are grateful for this fantastic response by the Byron community and it is wonderful to receive such generous support,’ Louise O’Connell, General Manager Byron Community Centre said.
‘However, we still need to raise more funds to be able to provide this essential service for the next six months and beyond.
‘In the last three weeks, our community workers saw an increase in demand for this vital service and report that the lines for our food outreach services this week have never been longer.
‘For the coming months, they expect an explosion of people needing our support as they are already seeing families and community members accessing our services that have never done so before,” she adds.
One generous donation to the Community Pantry came from the Uechtritz Foundation, which gave $10,000 late last week.
The foundation has also said that if up to five other local business or individuals are willing to pitch in and raise $10,000 between them, it will match that donation dollar for dollar.
‘Although we’re not directly affected financially we know how tough it is for a lot of people – it’s a very hard time,’ the Uechtritz Foundation’s co-founder Lorena Garcia said.
‘As much as we may not like all the tourists coming into Byron sometimes, the reality is that this is a tourist town and so the COVID virus has had a huge impact on our economy and a lot of people are really feeling it.
‘I know our donation isn’t really that much when you consider how many people have been affected, but it will hopefully make a difference,’ she said.
Ms Garcia said she wanted to encourage those who had the means to help to do what they could.
‘I know everyone is facing difficulties at the moment, but I think this is a time for all of us to pull together and do what we can to help,’ she said.
The Byron Community Centre launched a new fundraiser last week and is already almost halfway into reaching its goal of raising $50,000.
To donate to the Byron Community Pantry visit: https://byroncentre.com.au/donations/bcc/.
To contact the service for food delivery in the Byron Shire, call 0482 787 552 from Monday to Thursday between 10am – 2pm to arrange delivery.
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