Onwards and upwards - After helping many during the past few difficult years we The Philanthropic Collective has built on their strong base of community support and continue to help those in need.
The Hunger Games
May 2023
BY ESTHER LINDER
Esther Linder is a photojournalist based in Melbourne.
As the cost-of-living crisis worsens, more people across Australia are going without enough food.
At the doorway to Olinda Hall, in a mountainside community in the Yarra Ranges an hour east of Melbourne, a tall woman is greeted by name as she enters. She speaks for a few minutes to the volunteers in face masks and yellow fluro vests, before being handed a box of food. Bread, green beans, pre-packaged salad mix, a tomato, lemons, oranges, a tin of instant coffee. It’s early February. A laugh rings out into the wooden beams of the hall, news is exchanged and pleasantries made before the woman departs.
Around me, five people work efficiently as they put items into boxes, each labelled with a name, ready to be picked up by those in need. On top of one of the boxes at the back of the hall sits a bouquet of white flowers from Woolworths with an $8 price sticker.....
