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9 JUNE, 2026
Hospitality training People from refugee and migrant backgrounds are encouraged to apply for the Whittlesea Food Collective’s next 10-week hospitality course. The Whittlesea Food Collective is a café and catering kitchen at Melbourne Polytechnic in Epping operated by Whittlesea Community Connections (WCC) with support from the Scanlon Foundation. The free course gives people from migrant and refugee background hands-on experience in a kitchen and front-of-house café while offering wrap-around support. WCC’s Narelle Sullivan said the program helps students gain the skills and confidence for future work. “This is the kind of an environment where they can … get enough experience and enough contact with people to … figure out what their next step is.” She said each student is matched with a staff member in a buddy system and supported by a job mentor throughout the entire program. The next course will run from 13 July to 18 September. Registration closes on 3 July. Details: www.foodcollectivecatering. org.au/training-and-employment-program Whittlesea Food Collective manager and chef Gloria Marrocchino, staff member Nina Pham and student Inderjeet Kaur. (Damjan Janevski) 556593_03
GoGet green light By Courtney Black A car share program will be piloted in Hume for 12 months after council agreed to provide the company with three car parks. Car share company GoGet asked council to enter into the pilot program at no direct cost to council. Under the program, residents can sign up for a ’GoGet’ membership and access local hire cars when and where they need it. The hire cars can be booked by the hour or the day and are picked up and returned to designated car parks.
Council officers and GoGet selected two car spaces in Craigieburn (one on Clarendon Avenue and another on the corner of Grand Boulevard and Millicent Drive) and a third space on Sahi Crescent in Roxburgh Park. These car spaces will be reserved exclusively for GoGet cars for 12 months from October. Councillor Ally Watson said the program will provide real tangible community benefits. “Th is would be the fi rst initiative of its kind in our municipality, providing residents with a flexible, affordable, and
practical new transport option,” Cr Watson said. “It is likely that Hume would be looking to charge, if it was to go beyond a 12-month trial, for ongoing use of public assets and that type of decision would come back to council.“ Cr Sam Misho said giving away community assets to a business for free does not benefit residents. “We’re giving away something that belongs to the community,” he said. “We’re giving them exclusive use for 12 months and then after that we’re going
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to actually try to see what competitive measures that we can take. Well, why aren’t we doing it now?” Cr Jarrod Bell said the trial will give the council a wealth of information when it considers long-term opportunities in 12 months. “Without actually doing the doing, everything is just theory and so I’m keen to actually see the doing done,” Cr Bell said. “These are three spots in very underutilised areas, these aren’t spots in the middle of town which are in massive demand with rapid turnover.”