THE rising cost of groceries, fresh produce and fuel is placing additional strain on the resources of one local charity.<\/p>\n
Ararat Emergency Relief Committee is made up of five local churches working to provide food and assistance for people doing it tough.<\/p>\n
As the temperature has dropped, the committee has seen a noticeable increase in the number of people seeking help, especially families.<\/p>\n
The committee runs a foodshare service Monday to Friday on a roster basis from each of the five participating churches.<\/p>\n
They also help people with small payments for things like travel, pharmaceuticals and utility bills.<\/p>\n
Emergency Relief Committee President Rick Thomas said Life Links Church recently had 21 people seeking assistance, up from nine the previous month.<\/p>\n
He said a growing number of people are facing a tough winter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have people living down at the lake in freezing conditions. There is one bloke living in his car because the tent was too cold.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe accommodation situation (in Ararat) is so tight,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Thomas said one of the biggest issues being faced locally is people with no means of heating their home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still think back to a girl last year we took wood to, she had no heating. I guess you put rugs on but it\u2019s a pretty miserable life if you can\u2019t sit around at night with decent heating,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Thomas said the committee are in urgent need of additional funds to help people through the worst of winter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a lot of donations during COVID and they have sort of dried up. Cash donations are really handy because we can buy more food, more vouchers, pay for accommodation if needed,\u201d Mr Thomas said.<\/p>\n
Anyone able to assist with a donation can do it across the counter at the Ararat branch of Bendigo Bank by asking for it to be placed into the \u2018Ararat Emergency Relief Committee Account\u2019.<\/p>\n
Mr Thomas can also be contacted on 0407 857 378.<\/p>\n
Ararat Emergency Relief Committee operates every day from 1pm to 2pm at a different location on a roster basis.<\/p>\n
18th<\/sup> June \u2013 24th<\/sup> June Anglican Church.<\/p>\n 25th<\/sup> June \u2013 1st<\/sup> July Salvation Army.<\/p>\n 2nd<\/sup> July – 8th<\/sup> July Life Links Church.<\/p>\n 9th<\/sup> July-15th<\/sup> July St Vincent de Paul.<\/p>\n 16th<\/sup> July-23rd<\/sup> July Uniting Church Outreach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THE rising cost of groceries, fresh produce and fuel is placing additional strain on the resources of one local charity.
\nArarat Emergency Relief Committee is made up of five local churches working to provide food and assistance for people doing it tough.
\nAs the temperature has dropped, the committee has seen a noticeable increase in the number of people seeking help, especially families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[31],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/IMG_1944-4-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdqUu4-hM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1102"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1102"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}