Hawkesbury Community Outreach Services (HCOS) ‘Feedbag’ Project promoted mental health and wellbeing by supporting community connectedness, reducing stigma and empowering community members through knowledge, skill acquisition and rural community support. This was done through a food hamper program, mental health training for volunteers, the development of a community food demonstration garden and community networking.
Over the course of the project, HCOS provided 1,000 free ‘Feed Bags’ across the Hawkesbury area. Feedbags contained important grocery staples sourced from Foodbank and Second Bite, pet food supplies, mental health fact sheets and gardening information to encourage members of the community to participate in sustainable food production such as home-grown vegetables.
Project Lead, Maree Fayne, said “The Hawkesbury was hit with a barrage of catastrophic events, Bushfires in November 2019, Floods in February 2020 and then COVID-19 and mandatory restrictions which continue. The feed bag program was a wonderful resource for the community during these times.”
While COVID-19 made it difficult to conduct some of the garden workshops, HCOS were still able to host two. These included a ‘Pick and Cook’ afternoon and a ‘Plant for Hope’ workshop. Both workshops focused on capacity building and educating both children and adults on how to pick, cook and grow vegetables sustainably.
