Services and support for tenants in the two public housing estates under lockdown in Victoria is ramping up, with thousands of meals, supplies and personal care packs delivered in the past 24 hours.
Among those offering help is CEO of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC), Kon Karapanagiotidis, who announced the Centre has partnered with Victorian Trades Hall Council to provide food for the families in lockdown.
“Our Catering Social Enterprise, ASRC Catering, will deliver thousands of meals as part of the Moving Feast network emergency response to this crisis…” Kon said in a Facebook post.
“It will be refugees we employ at the ASRC, through our Catering Social Enterprise, that will be making meals for people in the public housing towers, many who are refugees too. Food that is culturally inclusive, appropriate & nutritious, as these communities deserve.”
Last night 500 packs of essential supplies and over 3,000 meals were delivered to residents. Many thousands more will be delivered today and tomorrow with the help of ASRC.
“We have our first delivery at 8am tomorrow. Right now our chefs are making a beautiful Malay, yellow vegetarian curry,” Kon said on Twitter.
“We, like you, are really worried about the families there and we’re trying to do our little bit to make this lockdown a little less traumatic for people.”
According to Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, a dedicated 1800 number has also been set up and every tenant is being contacted to check in and assess their needs.
“We know this is tough on our public housing residents and that’s why we’re doing everything we can to provide support – whether that’s food, mental health support or just help paying the bills,” the Premier said at a press conference today.
So far 398 residents have been tested across the two estates, with testing to continue to be a priority over the next few days.
