Aboriginal women operating a staff café at Nowra prison have been run off their feet in the nine months since it opened, feeding construction staff working on the centre’s expansion and changing their own lives in the process.
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The all-female employees at Nyully Tucker pop-up café at the South Coast Correctional Centre have been gaining vital skills and employment through a unique partnership with not-for-profit organisation Waminda.
South Coast Correctional Centre Governor Mick Reid said the collaboration has been well-received.
“Corrective Services NSW really value working closely with the local community and we have been excited to see the project find its feet,” Mr Reid said.
“We are always looking for ways in which we can make a difference in the Shoalhaven community and this partnership is something we are certainly proud of.”
The six-metre portable kitchen shed offers a healthy range of food and drinks, like honey-mustard chicken salad, smashed avocado on toast and protein shakes.
Nyully Tucker project manager Kristine Falzon said the support from correctional centre management has been wonderful.
“The pop-up café, which is open six days a week, has surpassed our expectations and we have increased our staff’s weekly working hours from 80 to 140 since we first opened,” Ms Falzon said.
The pop-up café, which is open six days a week, has surpassed our expectations and we have increased our staff’s weekly working hours from 80 to 140 since we first opened.
- Nyully Tucker project manager Kristine Falzon
“The next step will be to source and secure a commercial kitchen to expand on our catering services throughout the community, as we are currently not able to manage within the space on site.”
Ms Falzon said expanding the kitchen will continue to be a positive experience in the women’s lives as it generates further employment opportunities.
She explained how one Nyully Tucker worker had gained skills and confidence since being employed at the pop-up.
“She was a very quiet, shy person and had been through a lot of trauma and was shutting down, but being at Nyully Tucker has changed her,” Ms Falzon said.
“One day at work she called out, ‘flat white is ready’, and one of the girls said to her that she didn’t realise she had a voice.
“That’s what she has been given - a voice - and she is slowly starting to feel more confident and I can see her going a lot further as a result of the program.”