by Gabriella Vukman
It started with a small box of disinfectant-slathered children’s books during the pandemic.
Two years and multiple bottles of sanitiser later, the charity Share Space has 62 volunteers and provides approximately $4500 worth of free food to those in need each week.
Mother of four and founder of the charity Share Space Gayle Dye has been anointed a Knox Local Hero and is the recipient of a $20,000 grant towards her charity.
Receiving the award and trophy in early October, Gale plans to put this money towards a van to aid with the charity’s deliveries.
“We do a lot of bulk pick ups and we get a lot of pallets of stuff donated and we’ll be running backwards and forwards without cars So instead of doing ten trips, we can just do one,” Gayle said.
“Since February we have raised just over $19,000 so now we have $40,000 and I am going to go and appeal to all of the car yards for the last little bit.”
Gayle founded Share Space during the pandemic in 2020 when she placed a box of children’s books outside her home for the community to collect from.
“One day during Covid, a lady came up to me and asked me if I had any food. She said she was starving so my husband ran up to the shops and he bought some food to put in the box,” Gayle said.
“Then other people saw that there was food in there so they started dropping off food to contribute.
“We were getting books, food and toys and then one box very quickly became two and before we knew it, we had all these tubs at the front of the property near the garage.”
The Westfield community heroes program operates throughout Australia and New Zealand and operates to help organisations grow their impacts on local communities.
Grant recipients are nominated by community members, assessed and validated by staff from Westfield before community members are invited to vote for their local heroes.
Each year three finalists go through to the community vote.
The winning finalist receives a $20,000 grant while the others receive $5000 grants.
“I was a Westfield Local Hero finalist but I was not convinced that I was going to win, because the other two finalists do such amazing things for the community as well,” Gayle said.
“I thought nobody was going to pick me but then I won and I felt so excited and shocked. This grant isn’t just because of me, it is also because of all of our volunteers. I am just so grateful that the community also believes in what I am doing,” she said.
“This grant has also put us smaller charities in the spotlight. I didn’t even know about the other finalist charities until now. The big charities all get their exposure but we don’t, so this is really great.”
Share Space caters to the whole of Knox and provides over 750 people with food relief monthly.
With Saturday grocery hampers, smaller daily hampers, playgroup sessions, a community garden, art therapy and social meetups, Share Space’s food can be accessed 24 hours a day from the pickup spot located at 15 Goulburn Drive Rowville.
“We do emergency packs as well which are grocery packs that somebody will come and collect on a Saturday and we do approximately 30 to 35 family packs fortnightly too so we give them a whole thing of groceries, meat, a bag that’s got fresh fruit and vegetables,” she said.
“Our garage looks like a supermarket. I can’t really put the car in there now.”
Whilst the charity relies on grants, donations and volunteers from the community are its main staple.
Gayle said the thing she loves the most about her community is that “everybody bands together.”
“If somebody sees a need, our community just jumps on board and helps. It’s what I absolutely love.”
“I can put a call out and say, ‘I’ve got a single mum that needs something,’ and we will have it by the end of the day. They just all come together, and they all help. Rowville, where I live, is now becoming community-minded again and that’s what I love.”
With the rise in the price of groceries, Gayle confirmed that what used to cost 110 per person now costs around 140 not including meat.
In total, Gayle and her husband calculated that they go through approximately $4500 worth of groceries each week.
‘Share Space’ also tailors their packs to the needs of the community to minimise wastage.
“People can choose from personal hygiene items, pet food, regular food and cleaning items so they can choose what they know they’re going to use,” Gayle said.
“We’ve also added treats and chips and biscuits which puzzles some people but it is because everyone deserves a treat.”
“I particularly want the kids to not know that the parents are struggling, so I add chips and biscuits to their packs so that the kids don’t know there’s a difference.”
According to Gayle, there is a lot more to running a charity than meets the eye.
“I don’t think people realise how much goes into it all. We have to put all the stock away and know what we’ve got and rotate the stock so it is very time consuming,” she said.
“My husband comes home from full time work and then works at the charity, packing and delivering and we are 100 per cent volunteer run.”
Upon first starting Share Space, a significant amount of the donations were funded by Gayle and her husband.
“It came out of our own pockets really for a year, until it took off and because we couldn’t afford it, I reached out to the community and said ‘Can somebody drop off some new long-life milk?’ – and the community responded,” she said.
“We run on donations. We have a couple of corporations who give us money each month and we also get grants.”
“The council helps us out as well for running costs or to buy meat because it is quite expensive. The Rotary has also just given us a grant to pay for the meat.”
Despite having a relatively long wait-list, fortnightly supplies can be just an email away.
“I will never, ever say no to anyone that messages needing food. We have our emergency packs for that,” Gayle said.
To request aid packages or supplies, email Share Space on info@sharespace.org.au.
