OSSWA for HFB! | Community Packing Days

Our community packing days are proving to be incredibly diverse.

From school initiatives (Langford Islamic College), to family affairs (Sumaiyah’s), to community functions (Indonesian Community), these packing days have even found their way into Australian universities!

When Wael from OSSWA contacted HFB to organise a packing within their student association, the excitement was real.

After all, HFB used to live on university campuses in the form of collection points!

The Omani Students Society in Western Australia (OSSWA) is a non-profit organisation and is the premier representative body of all Omani students at Curtin University of Technology, Murdoch University, the University of Western Australia, Edith Cowan University, Central Institute of Technology and Canning College.

This team of students followed suit with previous community packing days by kicking into gear and collecting the donations they would eventually pack.

Come their packing day, OSSWA had collected and packed an amazing 26 boxes!

It was truly a special packing day when these students came together early on a Sunday morning to see their hard work move through the final stages in packing. Since then, we’ve had OSSWA members come down to regular packing days to see the usual chaos in action.

As you’ll notice by the brilliant photos on this post, this packing day had the privilege of hosting Rhiyaad Kahn as the photographer!

Rhiyaad took some time out on a Sunday morning to get these wonderful shots of the OSSWA Community Packing Day in action:

Rhiyaad is a Chartered Accountant by day who dabbles in photography, water sports and travel amongst various other hobbies. He’s been involved in projects such as the Refu-G ME Project with Shameema Kolia and Hamza Cakan, as well as being the Treasurer for the UN in WA.

It was an added bonus having Rhiyaad present at the OSSWA packing day, for both the good vibes and knowing how to get everyone’s good side.

When asked what inspires him to get involved in community initiatives, Rhiyaad said he gives back because of the abundance of blessings in his life, alhamdulillah.

If you would like to host your own community packing day OR if you would like to get involved with HFB in a freelance capacity, hit us up now: hfbperth@gmail.com!

 

Get Your Community Packing On!

You’re all probably pretty familiar with the iconic HFB packing day. You rock up to our premises early on a Sunday morning, we all rush around packing food into boxes, we usually eat an unhealthy amount of cupcakes, we tape up and get out of there.

But 2017 has brought the cupcakes, tape and packing day to you!

(Well, cupcakes are BYO.)

Wonderful little pockets of our Perth community have been getting in touch all year to host their own Community Packing Days with their family and friends. We’ve even had teachers get their students and schools to fundraise, collect and pack their very own food boxes.

Zainab is our Community Liaison Officer, a link between the community and the project. 

“As a community liaison officer I help to facilitate the conversation with community members and groups on how they can engage with the project based on their capacity and circumstances.”

She has contributed to the organisation of every packing day in 2017 so far and has experienced the event firsthand.

“Hosting your own packing is a great way to get together with your community with a greater purpose all while having fun. It allows you to take ownership of the project and make it your own.”

Our Coordinator, Maryam, has had the privilege of seeing this project develop since its inception in Perth.

“Community Packing Days are a huge boost to the project. They help us see how far we’ve come on this journey and it feels really rewarding that the community are picking up this idea and making it their own.”

Community Packing Days have also helped us achieve a project goal which is to raise awareness of HFB’s cause. 

“It shows that people are starting to talk about issues like poverty in Australia over their dinner tables and being prompted to do something about it. It also shows that everyday people can do extraordinary things.”
~ Maryam

Community packing days have empowered our communities to step forward and take on the initiative to give back and better the society in which they live and we couldn’t be more proud to be a part of that.

If you would like to host a packing day with your family and friends, do not hesitate to get in touch with us at hfbperth@gmail.com!

 

Wrapping Up 2016!

Tomorrow marks the first day of 2017! But for the minute, it is still 2016 so let’s take this moment to look back on our highlights of the year.

When the HSP met HFB!

I think I can speak for the entire team here at the HFB when I say that we didn’t think that HSPs (Halal Snack Packs) would make their way into our operations. I mean, we were aware of them, we’d joked about them here and there but it certainly played a very minimal part in our lives until Gemma Black came along.

Meet the Team! | HFB Perth 2016

Join the Team – Become a HFB Ambassador!

As a project we always have our sights set on the future – always considering what our organisation can become and how we’re going to get there.

This year we launched the HFB Ambassadors Program at our Afternoon Ladies Tea event.

A running theme in our meetings leading up to 2016 is that we saw no reason why we couldn’t pack more boxes. We set our target of 130 boxes per month and alhamdulillah we hit that target on the 27^th of March 2016!

And this was largely due to our amazing ambassadors and their dedication.

Our Ambassador Program is open to any one in the community eager to make a positive contribution locally. The task is simple: provide 5 boxes of food per month and do it however you want. Throw together a sporting event or put on a BBQ; host a morning tea or hold a bake sale.

Our ambassadors are encouraged to think outside the box and entertain any or every crazy idea that will engage the greater community in the conversation about food security for all. We’re actually pretty excited to see what fun ideas people come up with! 🙂

Check out these videos for a snippet of what went down at our Ladies Tea, hear one of our ambassadors speak & find out more about how you can get involved!

Planning, Packing & Peers | JAN-FEB Wrap Up

Are you as surprised as I am that we’ve already stumbled upon March? Because even though I’m about to take you through the wrap up, a small part of me wonders whether or not I was present or if the whirlwind that is 2016 got the better of me (in the best possible way, of course)!

In the Pursuit of Impact

Do you want to be a part of something bigger than yourself? Do you want to leave a legacy behind? Do you want to better the world you live in?

Do you want to live a meaningful life?

HFB Perth Likes…Shawn Achor!

Hello, 2016!

Here at HFB – Perth we are big on goals, meeting our targets and exploiting all of the hipster cafes in Perth to figure out how to do so – because nothing says productivity like coffee, desserts and all day breakfasts. Our team has been gearing up for some hard work in 2016, so it was perfect stumbling upon The Happy Secret to Better Work by Shawn Achor.

Full of gems regarding positivity, happiness, success and work, I wanted to share a few of my own thoughts about these concepts and how they have related to my work with the Halal Food Bank – Perth.

And the Winner Is… | POINT REP PLAYOFFS 2015

Sunday the 4th of October 2015 marked HFB-Perth’s first ever Point Rep Playoffs (PRPO) packing competition. Stemming from a rivalry between collection points Mirrabooka and Padbury (and point representatives Nicole and Nomaan, respectively), the showdown at Padbury’s Al Majid Mosque had been highly anticipated.

In the end, one team did emerge victorious but we’ll get to that later…or you can just scroll down and find out, but I live on the hopes that you are far more enticed by my rambling than just the result, right?

Right?