Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to tell you a quick story about Canice's Kitchen, a wonderful organisation in my electorate. Canice's Kitchen, in Rushcutters Bay, is a kitchen that provides free meals and clothing to vulnerable people. But also, importantly, it provides a growing list of support and training services to help vulnerable people in our community get jobs and stand on their own two feet.

I met Carrie Deane, who runs Canice's Kitchen, during the election campaign, and I was impressed by her and the organisation. Last year, Canice's Kitchen was helping a woman who was looking for work after 25 years on Centrelink benefits. The organisation spent 10 weeks getting her ready for a job interview. The team helped her prepare a resume, found her the right clothes and conducted practice interviews. She got the job. Then, two weeks ago, Carrie got a call from the same woman. She was now the hiring manager at the job she started in last year and she wanted to see if there were any other people Carrie knew of who could come in and interview for a job. It's a wonderful story—a great example of what Canice's Kitchen does—and addresses a fundamental issue that we have in long-term unemployment even when we have strong employment more generally.

The organisation continues to grow. It recently partnered with St Vincent's Health Network Sydney to create its new hospital on wheels, which provides mobile wound care and diabetes check-ups, amongst other services. Canice's Kitchen is always looking for new partnerships with businesses and organisations, so if you'd like to get in touch, contact me in the office. Thank you, Carrie and the wonderful Canice's Kitchen staff.