Community
Initiatives and
Partnerships
We value our community and our role within it. As a business, we strive to build community connections by collaborating with like-minded businesses and organisations in our region and beyond.
We engage in various community initiatives, including volunteering, raising money for grassroots community-focused organisations, preparing and delivering meals for those in our community experiencing difficulty, partnering with non-profit organisations, and sponsoring cultural events and organisations. We are always excited when we make a positive impact through our community involvement.
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Community engagement
1000 meals prepared…
Since 2021, we have been proud to work with the Mornington Peninsula Foundation (MPF) and Western Port Community Support (WPCS) to provide food aid to members of our local community who are currently experiencing difficulty. This annual collaboration runs weekly from May through to and including September. Our team prepares weekly meals with ingredients sourced from our regular suppliers. All meals are packed in BioCane packaging made from sugarcane pulp and are certified home compostable. This is an annual co-funded project with MPF.
100 hours of volunteering…
In 2024, we introduced a corporate volunteering program partnering with WPCS. The volunteering program is an opportunity for our team to better understand the issues relating to homelessness and disadvantage and is a rewarding way for our team to contribute to our community. Our staff members have found the experiences rewarding and have left feeling that they have made a meaningful contribution to those in need. Volunteering involves two fully paid half days for each staff member from June to late September. Our team assist with the fresh food program; a Second Bite delivery truck arrives, volunteers unpack, sort and set up a ‘marketplace’ for fruit, vegetables and other food items, and then assist with serving clients and the pack down.
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Our partnerships
ADVANCING PUBLIC WELFARE
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Mornington Peninsula Foundation
MPF was formed in 2017 in response to the high but unseen socio-economic disadvantage on the Mornington Peninsula. MPF is a place-based foundation working with people closest to the issues to support systemic changes that break the cycles of community-wide disadvantage. The MPF approach combines prevention, early intervention and crisis response to address immediate needs and deeper drivers. MPF builds in sustainability while providing risk capital through generous donor partnerships to support innovation and change in current systems.
Western Port Community Support Centre
WPCS is a not-for-profit community organisation supporting marginalised and disadvantaged residents of Hastings and surrounding suburbs. WPCS provides comprehensive emergency relief, material aid and personal support to people experiencing crisis resulting from disadvantage, poverty, unemployment, low income, illness, mental health challenges, misfortune or disability.
DineSmart
DineSmart is a grassroots community-focused initiative that brings change for people experiencing homelessness or at risk. It’s an initiative that unites restaurants and their diners to help people in their local communities. Each December participating DineSmart restaurants ask each table to add a small $2 donation to their bill. 100% of all donations collected through restaurants are distributed locally to help people experiencing homelessness or at risk.
We have worked with DineSmart since 2017. Each year we make a donation that matches the funds raised from our diners.Sacred Heart Mission
Every day of the year, Sacred Heart Mission assists hundreds of people experiencing homelessness or disadvantage in finding shelter, food, care, and support. Services provided include meals, help for women, housing, accommodation and tenancy support, aged care, in-home help and support and wellbeing. Each year we support the ‘Dine with Heart’ gala fundraising dinner.
The Portsea Camp
The Portsea Camp provides a safe, caring, healthy, educational and recreational environment for disadvantaged and vulnerable children. The Camp’s MasterChef luncheon is its largest fundraising event, raising funds for the Making a Difference (MAD) Camps. The MAD Camps, held four times a year, support children from all over Victoria, including those from the Mornington Peninsula. Restaurants and wineries across the Peninsula come together to donate their services and products for the MasterChef luncheon luncheon. Our business partnered with the Camp by donating wines to be served at the luncheon.
Red Hill Football and Netball Club
Red Hill Football and Netball Club (RHFNC) is a competitive sporting organisation for 180-plus young people women who make up football and netball teams. The Club is an active community leader with various longstanding programs that promote inclusiveness and diversity, e.g. a Reconciliation Action Plan, launching the league’s first Pride Game, etc. The Club’s Player Wellbeing Program engages with local youth to mitigate the scourge of mental health. We partnered with the Club to deliver one of its 2024 President’s Lunch.
ADVANCING CULTURE
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Peninsula Summer Music Festival
Peninsula Summer Music Festival (PSMF) offers a wide-ranging and diverse program of classical and contemporary music events permeating the vibrant and beautiful venues of the Mornington Peninsula, from wineries with stunning views to quaint churches and the spectacular hot springs.
Local and international artists feature in music programs that range from familiar to challenging, including works across all genres and forms and brand new works. Venues include Port Phillip Estate, Peninsula Hot Springs, Willum Warrain, Moorooduc Estate, Main Ridge Estate, Balnarring Civic Reserve, St John’s Anglican Church in Flinders (as the festival hub), and four aged care centres across the region.
PSMF’s program includes outreach and engagement events, including free performances for families, events for residents in aged care, and partnerships with local Indigenous community centres. Our business has been hosting recitals since 2012 and is a ‘Fellow’ partner and ‘Friend of PSMF’.
Melbourne Recital Centre
Melbourne Recital Centre (MRC) is an award-winning live music destination that champions the best local and international artists. Since 2019 we have been one of MRC’s wine partners and support the MRC annual fundraising dinner.
Sorrento Writers Festival
A not-for-profit cultural and community organisation that brings year-round literary events, discussions and talks to Sorrento and the wider Mornington Peninsula and Melbourne community. The Festival is committed to improving literacy, enhancing learning and providing a safe, stimulating and mutually respectful environment in which to discuss ideas. We partnered with the Festival as the wine sponsor for the 2024 program launch event at Shoreham.
PROMOTING RECONCILIATION
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Willum Warrain
We are in community partnership with Willum Warrain, a local Aboriginal Association and the voice of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on the Mornington Peninsula. Our business is a Black Ochre Organisational Member. The membership assists Willum Warrain in continuing to develop and flourish and foster its ability to create a vibrant and confident Aboriginal community.
As part of our involvement in the National EcoVineyards Program, we are developing two grassland areas at our property in Tuerong into more balanced and diverse ecosystems by planting a range of suitable indigenous plants to create areas that will enable native animals, birds and insects from the adjacent state park to thrive. We are working with the Willum Warrain Aboriginal Bush Nursery to source the plant material for the project. The Bush Nursery is a 100% Aboriginal community-owned bush nursery specialising in local indigenous plants from the Mornington Peninsula.
Click here to view more information about our reconciliation commitments.