Lunch for dozens costs less than $20, worth more than hot meal in this town

Sauteed mushrooms, as a side dish, had been prepared from one of three huge boxes donated to Creswick Neighbourhood Centre and kept warm in a soup tureen no longer needed in a cafe in town.

Passionate cook Jenni Sewell is bustling about the kitchen with a small band of helpers. Ms Sewell, who is no stranger to catering, quipped the more people she has to feed, the more likely she will say yes to helping.

The catch at this community lunch in Creswick, on the second Tuesday of each month, was she was always uncertain how many people would arrive for a feed. Guest numbers are growing with demand for help in the community growing.

Ms Sewell estimates about 30 lunch guest, but all leftovers will be packaged into meal portions and put in a freezer out the back. She said the meals would be gone by tea time.

Creswick Neighbourhood Centre rebooted its monthly community lunches about nine months ago in the wake of pandemic restrictions and amid the rising cost of living crisis starting to bite.

Making ingredients stretch was fast becoming a challenge until the unheralded opening of FoodBank Ballarat's hub in the Ballarat West Employment Zone, starting with a focus on working with charities in the region.

Fresh salads on the table during The Courier's visit were made with FoodBank salad produce.

Lunch had been made for less than $20, largely cobbled together on supplied and donated food, including the garlic bread from a previous FoodBank delivery that volunteers had thought would work well with the cottage pie. Mince in the pie had been from small packets from FoodBank.

Ms Sewell made a chicken curry for about 60 people in March for $57, a cost mostly in buying chicken thighs.

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Friends AJ and Kat have been popping into the neighbourhood centre almost daily for three months. They live in tents in town and said these were really hard times.

Kat said the hot lunches were absolutely perfect and she enjoyed the chance to chat with others while they shared a meal.

AJ has been inspired in his cooking. They share a gas cook top and try to be creative in meals. He made a good soup this week with patties and chips from a recipe he had seen made on YouTube.

The Tuesday community lunch is served not long before Anglicare drops off its care packages for registered people in need.

AJ said the fresh fruit and vegetables available from the neighbourhood centre's pantry were a bonus.

"It's good to call in here for support when you're feeling down," AJ said. "The people here will brighten your day.

"When I leave, I'm usually tired but happy."

A giant, inflatable globe and decorative wall and ceiling hangings brightened up the hall, still in place from the town's folk festival CresFest. But the talk about meals was focused on sharing food ideas.

Volunteers typically ask guests what they cook at home or how they might use a certain ingredient in great supply, such as zucchini. Curry is a popular dish.

The neighbourhood centre often places recipe cards about the place, such as for the dahl soup Ms Sewell made last month or the hit lentil salad on offer again, so people who received packets of lentils in care parcels might have more ideas for how to best cook with them.

Creswick Neighbourhood Centre manager Chrissy Austin said the centre tried to stagger food available in the pantry to help ensure there was enough to share.

Ms Austin said they did not want to create a dependency but a balance for people to be able to take what they needed at times that suited them best.

Community donations, especially from summer crops, have been plentiful but Ms Austin said every now and again, someone who had accessed the pantry or the community meal came back with a donation to help give back - they want to find a way to keep help for those most in need.