Last year, the Islamic school in Truganina was a focal point of Victoria’s second wave of COVID-19. Now, hit by a fresh outbreak, it is setting benchmarks for fast action and community engagement.
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Assembled in a makeshift commercial kitchen on a side street in Melbourne’s north, 15 volunteers with the Muslim Women’s Council of Victoria take on their own “mystery box” every Friday.
They rustle through donations of food from local charities and businesses: spare vegetables, rice, spice packets, sometimes chicken or beef.
Afshan Mantoo (centre) and her group of volunteers preparing food at their kitchen in Coburg.
Credit:Penny Stephens
Their assignment? Come up with a meal to serve the vulnerable Victorians who visit for Friday lunch in Coburg. Demand has peaked and troughed since mum-of-four Afshan Mantoo, the council’s president, started the initiative at the start of the coronavirus pandemic last March.