Fawkner Update

When Fawkner Commons wrapped up operations for 2020 in December we did not know what the following year would look like. A lot of things changed during the pandemic and having had to close the market we weren’t sure what our role in supporting the community would be post-COVID. Throughout the first few months of 2021 we have been investing significant organisational resources to ensure that we are making the most informed decision about our potential return.

In light of this work we’ve done this year we have sadly made the difficult decision to not relaunch our Fawkner market at this stage.

Due to the interruptions of the pandemic, relaunching the Fawkner market would effectively be like starting the market from scratch. For us as an organisation we have a tried and tested two-year market strategy to ensure a market has the time and investment required for impact and ongoing sustainability. We use a detailed feasibility tool to assess potential locations and consider all local factors. Applying this lens to Fawkner has led us to this decision which includes some of the following findings:

1. Since we launched in 2017, we’ve loved our home at Merri Health. While there is potential to return, there are significant factors that would make it a challenging site for an ongoing financially sustainable market. We’ve completed an updated suburb outlet, transport and community organisation mapping, all of which have been factored into this assessment.

2. Just prior to and throughout the pandemic the food outlet environment in Fawkner changed and there is an improved supply of fresh produce for local community members. The normal significant value proposition of affordability and quality that we could bring with our market has been diminished: our cost comparisons show that our prices are now only approximately 12% cheaper than surrounding outlets (against our comparative market standards of between 30-60% more affordable). It is great to see Fawkner produce outlets having adapted during the pandemic in relation to pricing, and one factor we also consider is our impact on local business - we don’t want to take business away from local shops employing local people.

3. Although demand for food relief has increased within Moreland, this is not the customer base we traditionally see at our markets. There are other food relief focussed organisations doing this work in the area already, and the pandemic really saw an incredible collaboration between these organisations to support people where it was needed most.

We’ll review this decision in three months (end of July 2021), allowing for things to hopefully return to an even greater sense of normalcy after the upheaval of 2020. We know there is a lot of movement happening around Fawkner in the food space. 

Fawkner has been part of The Community Grocer family for four years now so as you can imagine this decision has not come lightly. We have greatly appreciated the continued support from our customers and partners and it has been a real privilege to serve Fawkner.

If you’ve got any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to contact us on hello@thecommunitygrocer.com.au.

If you’re struggling to afford food in Moreland, follow this link to see up-to-date information on who to contact here.

- The Community Grocer Team

Our 2021 Impact Evaluation!

Every year we are lucky enough to have Monash University students help us out at the markets and with our yearly impact evaluation. We think this is a great opportunity for students to learn more about food insecurity and health promotion in a community setting. This year we had the help of Sandra, Clair, Jenny and Gabby, who did a fantastic job down at the markets surveying customers and getting to know the community.

From the left: Jenny, Clair, Gabby, Sandra.

We are so grateful for all of the effort they have put into the evaluation and appreciate all the assistance they have provided at the markets.

This year we have been really focusing our efforts on rebuilding the social and community aspect of our markets after the Victorian lockdown restricted access to our social spaces and prevented socialisation.
Therefore, we are so proud that 86% of our customers still feel more connected to the community because of our markets even after this difficult year of distancing.

Please see below for the full list of results:

Funding For Our Grocer Gift Card Program!

We’re excited to finally announce that we were one of the 93 recipients of the Community Food Relief Fund grants from the Victorian Government!

The $5 million grants aim to strengthen food relief services across the state to ensure healthy food reaches Victorians in need. We will use the funds to develop an innovative new voucher program, the Grocer Gift Program, for people on low or no incomes. This builds on our hardcopy voucher scheme that has been in place for a number of years now. Key to our mission is dignity, choice and nutrition. Our innovative voucher program will allow recipients to access food relief in a more discrete and accessible way. In addition, our markets provide a setting that enables choice - with a wide variety of high quality, fresh produce available - and a stepping stone away from food relief to food security, with our low priced and high quality produce available to everyone.

We’ll begin piloting the project in February and March with our current partner, Cohealth, at our Fitzroy and Carlton markets, before expanding to more markets with more partners later in the year.

Some of the funds will also contribute to allowing us to continue to deliver food relief boxes to partnering agencies, ensuring more people get more fresh produce on their tables.

It’s been incredible to see our organisation featured in the announcement of the grants, both in the press release and news.

We love that our work can be recognised in this way and we can’t wait to continue to share new developments with you.

Stay tuned for more details!

We were on ABC Radio National!

A message from our General Manager - Tess Gardiner

At the end of November, we had Michael Mackenzie from ABC RN Life Matters come out to our Pakenham market for his first outside story in nine months - complete of course with a boom microphone for COVID safety.

It was nerve-wracking for all of us on the day and in the lead-up to the piece’s release - but we trusted that the work we do would speak for itself. We couldn’t be more happy with the result! It’s so amazing to hear about our relaunch of our market in Pakenham and our efforts in increasing access to affordable and high quality produce across Melbourne so beautifully packaged into fourteen minutes.

It was heartwarming to hear our customers sharing what our market means to them, our amazing volunteer Michala so eloquently articulating why our work matters, and of course our founder and CEO Russ speaking to what has continued to drive us throughout the pandemic.

You can listen to the piece on ABC Life Matters’ website or download here.

Our Pakenham market is open every Thursday from 9am until 1pm at Outlook Community Centre, 24 Toomuc Valley Rd, Pakenham. We are closed for two weeks over Christmas and New Years’ (24th and 31st of December).

Meet Russell Shields - our new CEO!

We are so excited to finally announce that our founder and board director, Russell Shields, has become our CEO!

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for fresh and affordable food has increased, and as an organisation our responsibility to our many communities has grown. Therefore, Russell Shields has jumped on board to help the team meet the growing demand and expand our reach.

We sat down with Russell to ask him a few questions about the Community Grocer and his new role.

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What does it mean to become CEO of a company you founded? What does TCG mean to you?

I established TCG to improve access to fruit and veg across our communities. I wanted to use a social enterprise model to disrupt and improve the current emergency food relief system. Our focus at TCG has always been on the people we exist to serve and to value dignity, choice and nutrition. To now be leading the organisation in a full-time capacity is both a recognition of all of the hard of work of many team members and supporters over the years and a truly inspiring opportunity to do so much more - especially during these uncertain times when food access is a real struggle for so many people from all walks of life.

As the new CEO, do you have any exciting new projects install for TCG?

The team and I have actually been working on a Community Grocer Gift Card. We have a purpose built tech based platform that will enable anyone to access a Grocer market and redeem a unique QR voucher code either by phone or card. This model will enable community health centres to provide clients with access to fresh fruit and vegetables for a healthy diet.

As CEO how do you envisage the Grocer helping the broader community post-COVID?

We hope to play a vital role in ensuring communities have access to quality affordable fresh fruit and vegetables in a welcoming and localised setting. With our communities feeling the effects of such widespread job losses and reduced income support, price is a big factor in people being able to feed themselves and their families healthy fresh produce. Our markets are 60% cheaper than major food outlets and we know that over 90% of our customers `feel a sense of community' when shopping at TCG. We have managed to keep most of our markets trading throughout these challenging times and we plan to increase our reach and impact as we grow the business and support more people in need. Our focus is always on our impact and the evidence to date shows we are making a really positive change to the way food can be provided to communities and people doing it tough. TCG has a great team in place so we face the future with optimism and a real sense of purpose. The need is growing and our community-driven model has proven to be effective in improving access to fresh fruit and veg for communities across Melbourne, there is a lot of work to be done, but rest assured TCG team is up for the challenge.