A huge harvest of 50 crates of fresh vegetables from the new Beacon of Hope Community Garden is now on its way to help fight food insecurity in our local region.

Brilliant sunshine on Wednesday 21 October was perfect harvest weather for those helping out on the day at the Pakenham Campus. They included the College’s Head of Citizenship and Service, Clare Tuohy, Grounds Manager Roger Churchill and Year 10 students Brody Chase, Ethan Day and Chayse Kuys.

The crates of vegetables were delivered to Frankies Community Kitchen in Warragul, along with a number of other welfare agencies in the local region which help support people in need.

The project has been a collaboration with Sustain: The Australian Food Network, Cardinia Shire and Flourish, a new youth social enterprise aimed at inspiring young people to help join the fight against local food insecurity.

Three Beaconhills College alumni – Alysha Hall, Michala D’Elia and Shannon Carrigg – are part of the team volunteering with Flourish, which is funded by a VicHealth grant.

Mrs Tuohy said Casey and Cardinia LGAs were amongst the worst in the state for food insecurity. She said Wednesday’s harvest was timely as it coincided the release that day of Foodbank’s annual Hunger Report. It showed that around 1.2 million children in Australia went hungry in the past year and one in six adults faced severe food insecurity.