By Shamsiya Hussainpoor
Knoxfield resident, Abbi Haynes knows how hard it can be to find a place where you truly feel accepted and seen. After years of personal challenges and mental health struggles, she found that sense of belonging at Feed One Feed All (FOFA), where she now volunteers each week.
“I came out to Australia without my family,” Ms Haynes said.
“I was looking for community engagement…I’ve always been quite community-minded.”
Originally from the United Kingdom and raised in a Jewish family, Ms Haynes became a single parent when her two children were just toddlers.
With no family nearby, she started attending a church playgroup to find connection, eventually getting involved in community and school committees.
In 2018, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder following a series of depressive episodes.
At the same time, she was caught in a difficult cycle with Centrelink, struggling to meet job-seeking requirements she wasn’t mentally well enough to handle.
“You get caught in this spiral, and I really struggled with having to lie,” she said.
“It makes you feel less than, like you don’t measure up. It was deeply demoralising.”
Eventually, through a mental health program, Ms Haynes was linked to the NDIS and later approved for the Disability Support Pension.
“I had supports in place,” she said.
“That took away a lot of the circular thing I’d been going around with Centrelink.”
In early 2022, she entered a hypomanic state, followed by a major depressive episode that lasted 18 months.
It wasn’t until mid-2023 that she began re-engaging with the community.
She started volunteering at Ben’s Place and said she loved being back out in the world again.
“My calendar started getting fuller and fuller without being too full,” she said.
After being asked not to return to Ben’s Place, Ms Haynes said her mental health took a significant hit.
“When even volunteer organisations say, ‘Sorry, we don’t want you either,’ that really hit hard,” she said.
It was during her time at Ben’s Place that she met FOFA’s founder and president, Lillie Giang.
After returning from a mission trip in September, Ms Haynes reached out and decided to give it a go.
She hesitated at first over the food safety training, thinking it would be too complicated.
“In my mind, I built that up into something way bigger than it was,” she said.
“But the training was very easy to do.”
Once she completed it and went through her induction, she started volunteering weekly.
“I loved the lunches there, loved the people, just really friendly and accepting,” she said.
“It was something I could commit to, but if I wasn’t able to for any reason, that was okay too.”
Ms Haynes said FOFA’s application process stood out to her.
“They had questions like, do you have any health conditions? What might this look like? How can we support you? It was very inclusive, even from the start.”
She said she was able to be upfront about how her condition might affect her.
“I sort of come across to people that don’t know me as maybe being a bit blunt… when I’m in an elevated state, I talk to anybody and everybody,” she said.
“Other people there also shared their experiences. It just made it normal.”
She said she did have one challenging interaction with another volunteer, but it didn’t take away from the overall experience.
“It’s not eating me up. I’m just more conscious of how I interact with this person,” she said.
“That’s me being a lot more aware of my mental health obstacles.”
Ms Haynes said her experience with FOFA has been very different to other places she’s been involved with, including churches where she expected acceptance but felt judged.
“Then you come to FOFA, and they’ll take whatever you’ve got to give,” she said.
Now, she’s one of FOFA’s strongest advocates.
“I sing their praises because it’s been great for me,” she said.
“It’s going to be great for someone else who walks through those doors.”
She promotes FOFA in three keyways, accessing food, volunteering, and donating.
“Whether it’s time, money or goods… anything helps,” she said.
“I personally can find a use for anything.”
Ms Haynes joined FOFA in November 2024 and recently completed a survey to identify the areas of the organisation where she could contribute most.
“My passion is networking,” she said.
“I love giving out their flyers.”
She said one of her biggest learnings has been that her diagnosis doesn’t define her.
“I’ve learned that it’s okay to be different and I don’t have to be ashamed for being who I am,” she said.
“Hopefully I won’t fall back into depression, because I have a family around me now that will encourage me out.”
