OUR STORY

NourishEd Australia's Mission

NourishEd Australia is a grassroots, community-funded charity providing essential support to people experiencing hardship across Lake Macquarie. We provide food relief, practical assistance, social connection and pathways to further support, all within a welcoming and non-judgemental environment. Receiving no government funding, our work is made possible by the generosity of local businesses, community organisations, donors and supporters who share our vision of a stronger, more connected community.

Our Mission

01.

Eradicate starvation through rescuing food.

02.

Provide educational support and services to the homeless and vulnerable.

03.

To provide community and friendship that reintegrates vulnerable people back into society.

04.

To reshape how practical help is distributed to our communities and help instill lasting change in the system and in the lives of our region’s most vulnerable.

ABOUT NOURISHED AUSTRALIA

NourishEd Australia is a passion project for our community. We aim to provide immediate and long-term support options to relieve the everyday pressures of our regions homeless, vulnerable, disadvantaged and at-risk populations. Our existence is made possible by the power of the people in our community and our shared vision of eradicating homelessness and starvation in our local communities.

We intend on using the daily need of food and pantry items as a catalyst for our guests to access further support and to engage in their community.

We aim to be a hub of help in Lake Macquarie and serve as a ‘one stop shop’ to our guests by hosting services, resources and workshops in our space.

Not many charity’s goals are to one day become obsolete, however at NourishEd it is our goal to see all of the objectives in our mission statement carried out in each Australian community, one at a time – starting with Lake Macquarie. With your support we can make Australia ‘the lucky country’ once more for all Australians.

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OUR BACKGROUND

NourishEd Australia was founded in December 2023 by Jeremy (27 at the time), his wife Mikki (25), her sister Clementine (19), and her partner Nic (19). What started as a casual conversation at Christmas lunch back in December 2023 sparked an idea which quickly blew into a flame. We settled on a name later that week and lodged our company application. We wanted to be a fully independent charity, not associated with any religion or institution so that the people we help would know that we have no other purpose than to help. No ulterior motives, no hidden messages, no secret plan, just people helping people. By mid-2024 we were a fully registered charity with tax-deductible status and 6 months of planning behind us. We started looking for a place to operate from and managed to open our doors in August 2024 at a small shop in the heart of Toronto.

We started with zero volunteers, zero social following, and over $10,000 in debt. We had a rocky start - some weeks we saw only 12 people and had no help to prepare hampers, clean the shop, or advertise our services. But by Christmas that year, just 4 months later, we had about 10 volunteers, served over 350 people and distributed over 850 hampers (300 for free).

We have continued to grow exponentially, year after year. Our community needs us and we intend to be here to help, until we do our job so well that no one needs our help anymore.

Our Strategic Vision

Once we achieve our target growth, we will expand our pantry service to more days each week and add a meal service where we can produce high quality, nutritious meals served with a smile for our guests. We will continue to offer more services as we grow.

Our main operations will expand over 1-2 years to incorporate all of the following:

Providing food and food education programs, where people can receive cooking classes alongside their food and learn how to meal prep and budget meals for the week.
Provide assistance and teaching on the use of technology, with a focus on the elderly and ex-convicts.
Help people at risk of violence by providing a safe place and access to social workers, mental health practitioners and advice from police officers in a safe and discrete location.
Provide a location for members of the local area to volunteer and build community through supporting the region’s most vulnerable.
Host a range of services for those who cannot otherwise afford them, such as hairdressing, chiropractors, podiatrists, and medical clinics.
Host a variety of weekly recovery programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, SMARTRecovery, Family reConnect, etc.
Host a variety of government services where our guests can access support through services such as Legal Aid, Centrelink, JobLink, Service NSW and more.

Our Registrations

NourishEd Australia is the business name held by Nourish: Food and Education Services Limited.

ABN: 33 673 414 938

ACN: 673 414 938

We are an independent charity with no government or religious affiliations.