Mama Lana's Community Foundation, CSR Team building Blue Mountains

October 1, 2019

At Beyond the Boardroom we believe everyone deserves a workplace they love.

We also believe that every organisation should aim to give back to the community where they can.  It is this PURPOSE that makes our team building events special and unique.  Beyond the Boardroom specialise in CSR team events that are fun, engaging and inspiring but also do much more, they give back to the community at the same time.  Mama Lana's Foundation are one of Beyond the Boardroom's valued charity partners.  We work with them regularly and donate items through many of our Sydney and Blue Mountains team building events.

Here is the Mama Lana's Foundation story.

In October 2013, Roger and Lana Borg cooked for fire fighters who were battling the Blue Mountains bush fires. The duo delivered 350 meals a day over a 12 day period during the fires, as well as cooking BBQ breakfasts and dinners for the volunteers. Then in November 2013 they were asked to cook a banquet Christmas Eve dinner from a carpark in Penrith for the homeless and underprivileged.

Roger and Lana realised there was a great need in our local community to help feed the homeless and underprivileged and began providing meals four nights a week. When the need arose, Mama Lana’s Community Foundation increased meal services to the current arrangement of six nights each week. 

Lana says, “We want to let these beautiful patrons know that there are people out there that truly care. We want to help them get back their self-respect and dignity so they can eventually get back on their feet.”

Roger and Lana believe in kindness with no strings attached, and, with dedication and commitment, Mama Lana’s is doing everything we can to achieve this. Mama Lana’s Community Foundation (MLCF) is a wholly not-for-profit, volunteer operated organisation dedicated to helping our often forgotten homeless and underprivileged community in the greater Penrith region, to advance their wellbeing and prospects for future independence. 

MLCF offers hot meals six nights a week, supplies food and toiletry packs, as well as providing clothing, sleeping bags, swags and blankets to keep the homeless and underprivileged warm during cold Penrith nights. We are also open twice a week during the day, for drop in and for patrons to access a variety of services. 

MLCF liaises on behalf of the patrons with Centrelink, Penrith City Council, Department of Housing and other resource centres and government departments to help the patrons any way we can, to make their lives more comfortable and bearable. We also seek to find long term solutions to better their circumstances. Each week we see new faces, reinforcing to us that the need for our continued and expanded service is necessary. 

They recently secured rental premises, which has made an enormous difference to the breadth, and quality, of services we are now able to offer. It provides patrons with dignity, and has given our service a ‘home’ (instead of serving meals in a carpark, as we did for our first 5 years of operation).

Currently, MLCF specific projects are:

Meal service 6 nights per week ‘Drop in Centre’  x 2 days per week (with access to showers and toiletries, washing machine/laundry facilities and fresh clothing, blankets, swags, tents and sleeping bags, feminine hygiene products, nappies, emergency crisis hampers, and more) Facilities and resources for patrons, including computer and internet access, resume writing assistance, an on-site Counsellor every Tuesday, regular haircuts with a qualified hairdresser and self-defence classes. School lunch programBack to school suppliesA range of collaborative partnerships, including Uniting Aged Care Springwood (residents cook meals and sometimes help to serve them)

 

How people can support MLCF

Volunteering with MLCF can take on many forms and volunteering can be as frequent or infrequent (e.g. just assisting with our Christmas or New Years Eve functions) as suits the individual. They like to get to know volunteers' interests and strengths and utilise these where possible.

More information about volunteering can be found here: https://mamalanas.org.au/volunteering/ Monetary Donations (all Donations $2 and over are tax deductible):If you would like to make a monetary donation, donations are best made through Donate Planet: https://donateplanet.com/charities/read/mama-lanas-community-foundation/ Alternatively, a bank deposit can be made directly just contact them for the bank details. Please provide your name or other similar reference and if you require a tax receipt please send the deposit confirmation to [email protected]:

Corporate Sponsorship They have a full Corporate Sponsorship pack available. Please contact them (at [email protected]) to discuss how Mama Lana’s can partner with your business. They also recently launched their TURN THE TABLES program, which gives local businesses the opportunity to partner with them to specifically support rental and associated costs. More information here: https://turnthetables.org.au/

Food Donations Non-perishable items: donations of non-perishable items (unopened and in date) are gratefully received and can be dropped to our premises during opening hours.Perishable food items: perishable food items may include food left over from an event (catered that day), fresh fruit and vegetables, eggs, roast or sandwich meats etc. Donations of dessert or cheese and cracker packs for distribution at meal service are also gratefully received.