Hi all, Happy New Year.

FOOD FOOD FOOD

With some new funding via the State Government ‘Community Food Relief’ program, we are creating more opportunities for our community to build social connections through food. Sharing a meal regularly is a great way for locals to get to know each other. And with our new kitchen up and running we are in the ideal position to build community food opportunities this year - so we feel super lucky that this fortuitous funding has come along.

We have five food related programs on offer in 2025, and we’d love for you to come along!

• Garden to Plate (NEW) - Learn to cook seasonal food and then enjoy sharing a meal, on Mondays from 11.30am 1pm. This is a free program, but you must book in online as places are limited.

• Thursday Supper Club (NEW) - Do you often eat alone? Are you tired of cooking and/or keen to make some local friends over a meal? Come along and enjoy a healthy weekly ‘family meal from 5-6.30pm (perfect if you don’t like to be out too late at night). Term 1 costs $40 (that’s $5 a week). ’ - food provided but as a group you will need to set the table, serve up, do the dishes etc. - just like you would a home. This program starts on Thursday 13 February. Click here to join up. If cost is an issue for you just call our office.

• Community Lunch - our Friday lunch continues in 2025, join in from 12pm, or come along earlier to catch up over gardening, craft and community shed activities from 10am. This is a free program, but please let know to expect you - call or email.

• Crunch - Like good food? Enjoy being creative? Thursday lunches are for you! Join us from 12.30pm -2pm for lunch followed by a creative arts activity - painting, drawing, 3D art … and more. Book in for the term or by the week here.

• Preserves Group - join us on the 3rd Tuesday of the month from 1-3pm to help us turn excess garden produce/ seasonal fruit and vegetables into jams, chutneys and pickles for fundraising. We use donated jars and ingredients (donations always welcome) … and we’ll thank you for your volunteering efforts with good conversations and a light afternoon tea (including a fancy coffee)! Email us here if you’d like to join in. This group is coordinated through What’s App.

ALSO on to other things … join a Book Club

We have a couple of spots in each of our Book Clubs in 2025. They are on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings, with a daytime group meeting on Thursdays at 10am. Our Book Clubs meet monthly from February (when you come along and collect your first book) and finish up in December. You’ll read 10 books for the year supplied by Darebin Libraries. Our Book Clubs are a great way to meet other locals! Keen to join up? Book in here!

AND … there’s lots more.

• Op Shop Tours

• Sustainability/Repair Workshops

• Art Classes

• Access All Abilities IAAA) programs

• Playgroups

• Music and Dancing Groups and Classes

• Fitness Classes

Check out our full program here. And book in here.

I’ll highlight some of the other great things we’re super excited about in the coming few weeks.

I hope you are having a good break/relaxing summer.

Cheers Leanne

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

We have now got our brochure out for semester 1, 2025 … so you can get an idea of the new things we have planned. We’ve got op shop adventures, some new food programs, a few sustainability workshops and a new community yoga session on the cards. We’re pretty excited to be able to offer this range of new programs in 2025. And we have the Alphington Show and Dog Show coming up again this year at the end of March - always lots of fun!

The links to book in to these new activities will be up in the new year. I’ll put another post/newsletter out when they go live.

In the meantime I hope you get a break from everyday life over the coming week or two … and I (and all the staff at ACC) look forward to seeing you in 2025.

We’ll be officially back in the office after Australia Day.

Hi all, another week has flown by.

Thanks so much to everyone who came along on Friday to Christmas lunch. We had a lovely day with over 50 people attending - fabulous food …. and perfect weather for eating in the garden. Thanks so much to Santa for visiting and making the day extra special! And to everyone who came along to help. Such a lovely community we live in!

This week I am in and out of the centre - getting ready for next year. I’ll be working on overdue paperwork, next year’s programming and getting our semester 1 brochure out …. as well as doing a final tidy up.

If you need us after the end of this week and over the summer school holidays, you can get in contact with us via email … info@alphington.org.au. I will happily get back to you if necessary. However, anything that doesn’t need an immediate response will be answered when our office reopens after the long weekend at the end of January.

Next week I’ll put out a final newsletter for the year with the new program - so you can check it out and book in over the summer break if you are keen. We have some new funding and programming ideas that we are very excited about!

I hope you survive the heat today. It’s going to be hot. Try to keep your house cool, keep hydrated and avoid going out in the heat of the day if you can. Remember that Yarra and Darebin Council both have heatwave information on their websites if you need advice/information.

I hope you have a great week in the lead up to Christmas.

Leanne

As you probably know, we are a collection point for the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, and you can leave donations of household staples in the clearly labelled cupboard in our back garden any time.

The donated goods are collected fortnightly on a Thursday morning. This collection will continue over summer this year.

Thank you to everyone that donates - including schools and churches and individuals.

ASRC provides amazing services to some of the most vulnerable people in our society who cannot access either jobs or government financial assistance due to visa conditions etc.

Their ‘supermarket’ service and meal support makes a huge difference to peoples lives and dignity.

Are you interested in joining a book club in 2025? At ACC we run book clubs at different times and on different days … and some have vacancies for next year.

Specifically we have clubs that meet on the:

• 1st Thursday of each month - both the morning and the evening;

• 2nd Monday of each month in the evening

• 3rd Monday and 3rd Tuesday of each month in the evening

Bookings are now open for new members to join. Just click here to enrol.

It costs $60 to join. Book sets are supplied by the Darebin Libraries.

There are some great reads scheduled for 2025. So join a club and meet other avid readers to discuss a new book each month.

Our book clubs read 10 books a year. The first meeting will be in February (when you will collect your first book), the last in December.

If you join up now (over the school holidays) Kalimna will be in contact with you in late January/early February when we are back in the office.