Hornsby Connect: Discount grocery group’s plan when Job Keeper ends
A Hornsby community organisation — which provides discounted groceries to those in need — has made preparations for when Job Seeker payments are expected to end for many people in the coming months.
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A community organisation which provides discounted groceries to those in need is preparing for increased demand in coming months as people are expected to be forced off Job Keeper in the coming months.
Hornsby Connect President Stuart Armstrong said most voluntary agencies were “worried about what’s going to happen next”.
“With Job Seeker payments being quite significantly increased at the beginning of the outbreak, some of our regulars found they had more money in their pockets and could shop normally,” Mr Armstrong said.
“If those payments are scaled back in anyway, we are expecting they will need our assistance again. As job Keeper ends people who were able to hold onto jobs are most likely going to lose them.
“They probably have much higher living costs, such as, mortgages and they will find themselves in difficult circumstances.”
The government announced Job Keeper payments would end in September but now it’s unknown whether it will be extended until there are further announcements.
Hornsby Connect made a desperate plea to Hornsby Shire Council, requesting additional hours to hire the Hornsby Youth and Family Centre so that it could meet demand.
As a result, Hornsby Shire Council spoke to other organisations using the centre and made arrangements so Hornsby Connect could be granted exclusive use of the centre on a Tuesday and Wednesday.
Councillors voted unanimously in support of the decision at a council meeting on July 8.
Mr Armstrong said if Hornsby Connect didn’t have the hours to operate, they might have been forced to close down.
“It was basically a matter of meeting the hours so we had exclusive use of the centre for two days a week so we could get the supplies and prepare the hampers.
“If we didn’t have the dedicated spaces and had to pack up between sessions we couldn’t manage the volume of food we had to process.”
Prior to COVID-19, Hornsby Connect ran a pop-up supermarket but its model was changed so it could adhere to social distancing measures.
Now it provides hampers which are packed and ready to be distributed.
The non for profit relies on supermarkets and donations from Food Bank to provide the community with discounted groceries.
“There is always a group of people in our society who don’t have enough money to live on, we’re there to help them during difficult times by providing groceries in the short term so they can get their life back together in the short term,” Mr Armstrong said.
The council acknowledged other organisations gave up their precious timeslots on a Tuesday and Wednesday for Hornsby Connect including the Aknoon Cultural Centre and the Japanese Playgroup.