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Friends of the EMC Winter Newsletter

Winter is here and with it the chilly days and nights that make life so hard for many of our guests. Already our community is rallying with donations of warm clothing and hand knitted beanies and scarves (thanks, Canberra Circle of Women and Jo) which are always popular.

End of Financial Year Appeal

It’s June and the end of the financial year is fast approaching. As our fundraising activities are still constrained by ongoing covid and flu concerns, we are asking for your generosity to support us. Should you feel able to make a donation to the Early Morning Centre, our bank account details are as follows:

Account name: UnitingCare Canberra City

BSB: 634 634

Account number: 100040612

Reference: Please include your surname as the reference

As all donations are tax deductible, please email us with the amount and your details so we can issue a receipt. 

Alternatively, you can make a secure online donation to the EMC through the Hands Across Canberra website.

Mr 10 and Miss 8 - two community heroes

We were very proud when a story about one of our young supporters, known as Mr 10, appeared on ABC News recently.

'Inspiring Canberra boy supplies hundreds of emergency food packs for city's homeless' - that's our Mr 10!

This incredible young man has been an amazing ongoing supporter of the EMC. It's always a pleasure to see Mr 10 and his family when they deliver the generous donations of items for our emergency food packs.

You can read more about the wonderful work of this young community hero on the ABC Canberra website.

Mr 10 preparing emergency food pack donations for his weekly delivery.

(Photo credit - ABC News: Ian Cutmore)

We also have the pleasure of regularly seeing another young supporter, Miss 8 (previously known as Miss 7 - happy birthday lovely lady!), when she also drops off generous donations for our emergency food packs.

New initiatives

With thanks to our donors

The EMC is fortunate to have received several large donations recently, some from regular donors and some as one-offs. These donations will allow for an expansion of our services. As well as the fresh fruit salad that’s provided every weekday morning at breakfast, fresh fruit is going to be available each day. This may not sound much however given the amounts we will buy it’s been budgeted to cost an extra $25,000 per year and will require the purchase of another fridge. Thanks to our generous supporters, we are able to do this.

We are also going to hold monthly workshops on life building skills covering health, financial management and legal issues. We will use feedback from our guests to assist in choosing the topics that they will find most useful. Again, this initiative is possible because of the ongoing financial support we have received from donors.

John has been our longest serving staff member and his support and care for our guests over his many years of service has been highly valued. His familiar catch cry of “Gobble, gobble” at the end of each breakfast will live on in EMC history. John will be missed by guests, staff and volunteers but we hope he will still visit and say hello.

Many thanks to Helping ACT for their wonderful support with the lunch.

Relaxing with games and art and craft

Trivia quizzes are held regularly with small prizes adding to the fun. We also have art and craft sessions being held weekly with new volunteers leading them.

These sessions are a fun way to help lessen the social isolation felt by many of our guests.

OzHarvest Cooking for a Cause

In March OzHarvest delivered a large quantity of pre-cooked meals that had been made at Parliament House. The program was titled “Cooking for a Cause” and it engaged politicians and staff in a community assistance program where the meals were cooked and delivered to a range of local Canberra charities.

OzHarvest Driver, Ray, with Rob Stefanic, Secretary of Department of Parliamentary Services, and EMC Director, Nicole Wiggins.

Recently 50 guests enjoyed a wonderful Sri Lankan lunch provided by Sudarshani and Dulip, in memory of their parents. There was delicious food of curried chicken, dahl, rice, salads and desserts.

Sudarshani and Dulip preparing a lovely Feel Good Feed lunch in memory of their parents.

Also, a former staff member recently visited with pizza and cake to celebrate a special birthday. Everyone enjoyed the celebration.

Happy birthday, Spaceman. Thanks for sharing your special day with us!

Spaceman at the EMC for his pizza-party birthday celebrations.

Hands up for Canberra - final total

Thank you, Canberra! When the #HandsUp4CBR Giving Day had come to an end the EMC had exceeded our $10k target, raising a total of $16,329!

From our whole team, thank you to everyone who made a donation and shared the Appeal. Your continued support with fundraising and sharing updates about the Canberra Day Appeal made a huge difference!

A warm thank you to our autumn supporters

The EMC would be lost without you!

• Tall Foundation

• Capital Chemist

• OzHarvest

• Gungahlin Food Pantries

• Greenhills

• Bake House Ainslie

• Ngunnawal Street Pantries

• Mobilise

• Helping ACT for many donations and ongoing support

• Kim and Trond for warm winter blankets

• OutwardBound Australia for yummy fresh fruit

• Mr 10 and Miss 8 for emergency food packs

We would like to thank the Murrumbidgee Canberra Rotary Club for their continued support of the EMC through their Seasonal Antiques and Collectables Fair and their recent generous donation of $5,000.

We have received numerous large donations over many years from the Rotary Club of Murrumbidgee and we would like to thank all members for their ongoing support and generosity.

What’s happening at the EMC?

Did you know you can view a schedule of the Community Hub activities and visiting services on our website? Check it out here.

The Early Morning Centre is an activity of the Canberra City Uniting Church, with assistance from the ACT Government and the Commonwealth Government under the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement.

We acknowledge the way the traditional owners have cared for this land from time immemorial and commit ourselves to building more just ways of living together with the First Peoples of this land.