A bright light through the floods

Our customers and staff have once again been impacted by devastating floods in Victoria and NSW.

Our home and community support services in Shepparton, Eucha, Rochester, Forbes, Cowra, and Gunnedah are currently impacted by flooding.

Flood waters have inundated our Aussie Biscuits factory and water has covered part of the road in front of our Facilities Services business in the area. It’s not clear what damage has been suffered, what’s needed to be repaired, or when the team will be able to get back to work.

With more rain expected over the coming days, our teams continue to support each other through the evolving crisis.

Here are just a few examples of our amazing staff going above and beyond, once again. Please donate, if you can, to support our customers and staff impacted by these latest floods in Victoria and NSW.

Our staff lend a hand in Victoria

Last month, we saw the Victorian floods cause heartbreak for thousands of people across the state. Despite the devastation, there has been an outpouring of support from BRAVE staff who supported each other and our customers through this tough time. 

Throughout the floods, support workers and managers from New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland, volunteered to head south and support our Victorian staff. 

“The relief staff were truly amazing. It was incredible that they were even willing to leave the safety of their own homes to help us out. Everyone was so flexible and willing to do what it takes,” said Victorian Support Worker, Jaimie Lee Currie.  

Jaimie works at our Supported Independent Living (SIL) home in Rochester, Victoria. She was one of our staff members who worked 21 days straight to assist the 11 customers relocated to Swan Hill Resort.

On top of the everyday tasks of a support worker there was also the added pressure of making our customers comfortable during such a disruption to their usual routine – new locations, new people and to top it off, gloomy weather. 

Support Worker, Melissa Howarth, from our Sandgate Road SIL in NSW, is always willing to lend a hand. She volunteered to help Victoria even though it meant she would be away from her own family. 

“I went down to Victoria for five days and I really wish we could have stayed longer. The staff over there really appreciated our support, and it was great to see everyone come together to help,” said Melissa. 

With the majority of customers now back at home, we thank all staff who have worked around the clock to keep customers and each other safe. 

Teamwork in Forbes, NSW, helps ease flood stress

Teamwork is making flood preparation and clean-up less of a nightmare for our employees and customers in Forbes, NSW.

Manager Shared Living Kim Wright, Facilities Services Manager Mitch Bembrick and the Lawn Maintenance have worked with our Aussie Biscuits team and others to waterproof our offices, homes, shop front and factory as much as possible.

Our teams praised each other for willingness and capabilities to help each other out, which they agree is a wonderful benefit of living in a small community.

“There’s a lot of planning involved in emergencies like this,” Kim said.

“I made sure my two SIL homes had enough bottled water and other supplies, and Mitch’s amazing Lawn Maintenance team helped us and many others to sand-bag doorways and inside buildings to keep rising water out as much as possible.

“Across all our sites, a lot of furniture, electrical equipment and ingredients needed to be moved elsewhere or as high up as possible, which we all pitched in to help with too.

Mitch said his team had stopped work for a couple of days to help with the flood efforts.

“Our full crew of 10 supported employees joined the local SES to deliver sandbags around the town,” he said.

“We’re helping out the Supported Employee who lost her home as well. She’s just devastated, so we’re doing as much as we can for her.”

Our flood appeal for staff and customers remains open. If you can, please consider donating here.