Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to associate myself with the comments from the member for Mallee. Last weekend I took part in Cooking Connections, an Afghani and Iranian cooking class, held as part of the Care to Share project in my electorate.

The Care to Share project was borne out of discussions by the Inner West Buy Swap Sell Facebook group about how community members could connect and welcome asylums seekers living in Melbourne's west. Led by Bree Anastasi, Danielle Entwistle and Kerry Sanders, the group aims to forge personal connections between asylum seekers and the local community through shared culinary and cultural experiences.

The Care to Share program began with The Welcome Table in which families invited local asylum seekers into their homes to share a meal cooked by their hosts. These intimate dinners were documented by local photographers whose moving record of the meals is now on display at the Footscray Community Arts Centre.

The second part of the project involved Cooking Connections, classes hosted by members of the local asylum seeker community to enable members of the broader community to learn how to cook traditional dishes from the asylum seekers' cultural heritage.

I would like to thank everyone involved in his project, including Mahin Irani, Ingrid Fitzgerald, Nikii McCoppin, Carolina Faria, Sophie Dutertre, Joanna Attard, Wendy Stiles, Joel Clarke, Clare Martin-Lapworth, Rachael Smart and David Patston; and the warm and generous hosts of the cooking classes that I attended last weekend and for whom it is not prudent for me to name at this time.

The Care to Share program is a great example of an internet enabled community organisation finding ways to strengthen our broader community through shared experiences. (Time expired)