As the saying goes, a kitchen is the heart of a home but for CatholicCare Social Services Hunter-Manning kitchens have become the heart of their community.

With five locations across the Hunter-Manning, the team regularly cooks up kindness and offers food, support, and a smile to people who are going without.

In a recent boost for the Food Programs, the Catholic Community Fund (CCF) donated $25,000 to refurbish the Hamilton South Community Kitchen.

As a volunteer, CCF Executive Director and Fund Manager Jenny Chung knows just how important the service is.

“It supports some of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people in our community who need a helping hand,” she said.

“It feels great knowing that our donation will have a positive impact. The staff in the CCF are really proud of the contribution they can make and so are our members.”

CatholicCare Executive Director Gary Christensen is so grateful for the backing.

“The support from the Catholic Community Fund goes a long way to helping us support the vulnerable community of Hamilton South,” he said.

“It means we can help this community in the way that we should as a church and in a way that we should as a Catholic organisation.”

Social Enterprise Executive Manager Priscilla Scanlon said the new kitchen will make a huge difference to the service.

“In the kitchen, we’ve installed a new oven and new freezer/fridge facilities and we’ve got new storage lockers and a baine marie to make it easier to serve hot food,” she explained.

“We’ve made the Kitchen a more secure environment for volunteers to work from.”

Gary adds that it will allow the service to expand when ready.

“The upgrade of the kitchen means we can provide hot nutritious meals seven days a week as we build up and increase our volunteer base,” he said.

“I just want to thank the CCF for their ongoing support, it’s a great partnership, without them we wouldn’t be able to do many of the great things we do.”