Serving with Love: Our New Journey in Food Safety
At our church, community often revolves around food. Whether it’s a cup of coffee and a piece of cake, a sausage sizzle, a light lunch or a dinner, food is central to the way we welcome people into our church community. And as we look back on 2025, we have an incredible reason to give thanks: our dedicated volunteers prepared, cooked and served almost 5000 meals and countless morning teas! This represents tens of thousands of moments of hospitality and care, and we are deeply grateful for every hand that helped.
As we grow however, so does our responsibility to look after one another. Over the last two years, we have been seeking to respond to the reality that in Australia, there are about 4.7 million cases of foodborne illness every year, and the risks associated with food allergies are more prevalent than ever. To ensure we are loving each other well, we have been freshly reviewing our food safety practices and beginning to implement our new Food Safety Guidelines.
Our goal is to align with the best-practice standards set by the NSW Food Authority and the Sydney Anglican Diocese. By updating our Food Safety Guidelines, we aren't just "following rules", we are practicing good stewardship of the community God has entrusted to us.
Now, don’t we all know that in a church, “more guidelines” can sometimes mean “more work”, “more complication” and “more admin”. Our aim is to make sure that this is not the case. Rather, our guidelines aim to help us work safely together to ensure people enjoy their time serving and enjoy time in our community. With all this in mind, we are taking a phased approach to their introduction.
Over the last 4 weeks, those currently involved in food teams have received advance briefings and information. Later this month, we will offer training sessions for those involved (and anyone else who is keen) right here at the church to ensure we all feel confident and equipped to make and serve meals safely. We are making a significant investment in this training and will be covering the costs for professional trainers to come to us, making it easy and accessible for us all.
Our official “Go-Live” date is March 2 so by then you will notice some changes in the kitchens and more information will be available on the website.
Like always, we want to hear feedback from those involved in preparing meals and those eating them! So in May, we will hold a feedback session to ensure our guidelines are fit for purpose, practical for our volunteers and working to keep our church safe. I know it all sounds a little complicated but the thing is, we have many mouths to feed and many opportunities to serve and we want to do it safely and joyfully!
If you’ve been thinking about how you could serve at church, joining a community team is a great place to start. Please reach out to Anne Lancaster, Garbo Chan or Tom Pattison. Let’s continue to serve one another with thankfulness and love, ensuring that our table remains a place of safety and joy for all.
