In late August we were able to respond to a call for assistance from Uniting.  In addition to attending to their own case-loads, Uniting staff had been working on the provision of food and essential item hampers for families facing crisis.  The request for help came to Rev Mel and the response was a quick move to action by DUC, liaising with Uniting staff, to get an emergency food relief ‘shop’ running in the hall.  Our operation is fully funded by the Moderator’s Disaster Relief Fund – specifically targeted for COVID-19 relief.

Uniting staff take the initial call from clients with their request and this is then communicated to DUC. A small team of volunteers then packs the items into hampers for families and singles as per the request.  This can be anything from one adult, two adults and two children, or in one case 11 adults!  Delivery is then made by the Rotary Clubs of West and South Dubbo, the Police Aboriginal Liaison Unit, the Police, the ADF, and Uniting staff.

As you can imagine this has been a huge undertaking and the first week we prepared 63 hampers, and the second week saw the delivery of 70 hampers. A proposed end date for Operation Lockdown Relief is Friday 17 September – this Friday.

Each team has their way of working together and have met the challenge of the ebbs and flows of Operation Lockdown Relief.  There are great new connections being made for Rev Mel as a newbie in Dubbo, and for our Church with the wider community.

We are still the Church focused on God’s purposes whether we can worship together in the Church or not. We are alive and awake to the struggles of this lockdown and pandemic.