Gabriella Vukman
As Christmas bells begin to jingle, the Ferntree Gully Market has selected its next donation recipients in light of meeting the community’s needs this festive season.
With new funds surfacing due to updated management, this season’s donation recipients are Foothills Community care, where funds will go towards covering their Christmas lunch and the restocking of the Ferntree Gully Salvation Army’s food bank.
New Upper Gully Market President Ian Rice said about the market’s newfound gold, “I just couldn’t understand what that money was doing there so I’m giving it away.”
Having previously put its jingling pockets to use, the market donated to the CFA and the Ferntree Gully Angliss hospital among other local organisations, Mr Rice’s welcome dolloping of funds on his surrounding community is all part of a bigger picture.
“The market has been run down through bad management for the last few years and was having trouble attracting stalls and customers.”
“I thought I’ll use these donations to promote the market as well as promote the charity’s causes. Most importantly the store holders see where part of their stall fees are going.”
CEO of Foothills Community Care Stephen Barrington said, “For the past 22 years Foothills Community Care has been running its Ferntree Gully Christmas Lunch for locals who would normally be spending Christmas on their own.”
“With two sessions, an early and a late lunch on Christmas Eve, bookings are already at capacity with over 150 people expected at each session.”
“Foothills would like to thank the local community for donating goods and funds as well as for putting their hands up to volunteer.”
These donations help to “make the Christmas Eve lunch possible and special for so many,” Mr Barrington said.
The Upper Gully market, located under the Upper Gully Carpark, welcomes visitors every weekend with store fees returning to grace the local community after the costs of running the market have been deducted.
“Hopefully a small percentage of the community will come back and support the market,” Mr Rice said.
The process of selecting each season’s donation recipients varies.
Mr Rice said, “we asked around for suggestions, the fire brigade was an obvious one first up for me because they get nothing. They have to beg, steal and borrow to get anything.”
“One of my store holders volunteers at the foothills one day per week and so I went down and spent a day there, spoke to the guy who set it up and I stayed around for a while speaking to volunteers and recipients and it was an eye-opener.”
“I went back to tell the foothills care organisation that we would cover the Christmas lunch that they put on. They usually feed around 220 people.”
The Foothills care organisation also feeds upwards of 40 and 60 people during the week and has tables of fresh fruit and vegetables for people to take home.”
The other donation recipient, Ferntree Gully Salvation Army, received money towards their food bank.
“They have a food bank cupboard at the back of their building which is available 24 hours a day for people to take stuff,” Mr Rice said.
“They’ve got things that also need to be replaced like fridges and stuff like that.”
Salvation Army Pastor, Major Rosemary Massey said, “Ferntree Gully Salvation Army has been blessed to receive a generous donation from the Ferntree Gully Traders Market committee to support our 24/7 food pantry.”
“The pantry is restocked every day with non-perishable food items by a team of volunteers.”
The 24/7 food pantry came out of a need to provide food out of business hours for those unable to access services when open.
“The pantry has been running since May 2023 with support from the Red Shield Appeal, donations given from our generous community, the church members who bring in food items, the Ferntree Gully Rotary and Rowville-Lysterfield Rotary and now the FTG Traders,” Major Massey said.
“One Sunday I arrived to find a note from a mother under the door thanking us for providing the pantry. The mum could feed her kids for the weekend.”
Next year the Ferntree Gully Market will direct its donations to the SES and as Mr Rice said, “then the Fire brigade again.”
