By Mikayla van Loon
Mount Evelyn homelessness service Holy Fools relies on its ‘hope’ van to transport meals and other supports to people all over the Yarra Ranges.
But like most vehicles there comes a time when they start getting more expensive and as a not-for-profit, CEO Neal Taylor said he will need to look at replacing the van in the near future.
“The van we’ve got has been a real workhorse and we’ve had it now for close to seven years,” he said.
“We bought it second hand with some funds that were donated and it’s starting to cost more and more to run. We’ve just recently had to have the radiator replaced and the mechanic has advised me that there is going to be more and more stuff.”
Although probably still a year off, Mr Taylor said he hopes he can use the next year to fundraise enough money to purchase a brand new van.
“We thought it would be better maybe to replace the van while we can and that’s why we thought, ‘oh, let’s go for a brand new van.’ If we go for a brand new van then we’re thinking we’ll have a longer period with it.”
The van is an essential for the work Holy Fools does in the community, from transporting food, materials, blankets and sleeping bags, as well as backpack beds.
It also carries all of the equipment needed for the Street Angels lunches held every Wednesday in Melba Park and has also helped people move into houses who have previously been sleeping rough.
“So it gets used all the time regularly and is the central tool that we have for the work we do particularly with all of the outreach stuff that we do,” Mr Taylor said.
To purchase a new van, Mr Taylor said the not-for-profit will have to raise $60,000 both through community donations and hopefully from grant programs.
Coming off the back of the busy Christmas period, Mr Taylor also said donations have been lacking and funds are running low.
“Our budget has been eaten into quite considerably with the Christmas lunch. We did have a lot of support from people for Christmas so we were really thankful for that.
“Donations have been down and have always traditionally been down in January and I’m just hoping that they start to pick up.”
Mr Taylor would like to start signing people up for monthly monetary donations, whether it be $20 or more, to have those continuous funds coming into the charity.
Having held the Christmas lunch, the pantry and stock of food has been left drained, something Mr Taylor would like to rebuild each week.
The team at Holy Fools may try a different technique of taking donations this year, just to give people a weekly focus, taking donations of pasta one week and baked beans the next.
Mr Taylor said there are some exciting things coming up for Holy Fools and he hopes the community gets behind the charity as they always have.
To donate to the van fundraiser, go to https://www.mycause.com.au/ and search for Holy Fools.
