It’s Thursday morning in a warehouse on the northern outskirts of Melbourne and a sophisticated logistics operation is underway.

Highly specific bespoke orders are coming in and a variety of goods are being sourced and packaged according individual customer profiles – including age, gender and special needs.

The packages are then sealed and labelled ready for delivery.

Meanwhile, a dedicated computer system keeps track of what material goes where and to whom while also managing data on customers and delivery agents.

But this is not the transport hub of a national retail giant distributing expensive, fast moving consumer goods that most of us could easily live without.

Instead, it is the home of an extraordinary not-for-profit community organisation called Big Group Hug, which distributes the essentials of life to disadvantaged children and families.

Big Group Hug has been operating for nine years, making a difference in the lives of thousands of children.

Run mainly by volunteers, the organisation has grown from operating in its founder’s garage, via a church hall, to a warehouse in an industrial estate in Bundoora, in Melbourne’s north.

In that past year, Big Group Hug has supported 4,271 babies and children, provided more than 100,200 essential items to families, mostly in the north and west of Melbourne.

Part of the organisation’s mission is around sustainability and recycling, so it has saved around 67 tonnes of salvageable items from landfill.

Refugees, asylum seekers and people of bridging visas make up 16 per cent of the families BGH supports.

The organisation supplies more than 130 social service organisations through a network of about 1200 support workers; and its reach and impact has grown exponentially over the period of its existence.

All of the clothing, toiletries, blankets, toys and other items are sorted by gender and age while prams, cots and car seats are washed, repaired and safety-checked.

BGH CEO Bernadene Voss says the model her agency uses is to work through support workers who come and pick up the goods their clients need.

“A social worker will contact us and request some items for their clients. We package them up and have them ready and waiting for pick-up,” she says.

“Our mission is to mobilise community support to respond to the immediate needs of young people.

“We focus on children aged 0 to 16. And we have high standards. We don’t give out anything that is dirty or shabby; we don’t supply things that we wouldn’t be happy to see our own kids wear.   

“Our organisation, including our 300 amazing volunteers, has true purpose and incredible energy,” Ms Voss says.

“They know they are touching the lives of so many people and really feel they are contributing to someone’s life even if they are just folding stuff and popping it in a bag.

“And our volunteers know vulnerable children and their families are at the forefront of everything we do.”

Big Group Hug’s Manager of Fundraising and Communications Maria Quigley says volunteers and supporters are vital to the functioning of the organisation.

“We rely on a disparate community of people all over the country – some of our volunteers are in Orange and Sydney in New South Wales,” Ms Quigley says.

“We have retired and semi-retired people, there are graphic designers and grant writers among our volunteers as well as young people on Tuesday nights – it’s a real mix of people 

“If we need some items, we put out a call and our supporters respond. They might go and collect stuff they see put out as hard rubbish. Some people will buy things from Coles and have it delivered to us or they’ll send in gift cards,” Ms Quigley says.

Ms Voss says that among the volunteering roles at Big Hug Group, one of the most confronting jobs is working on the request packaging desk.

Just as she says this, volunteer Pam opens a request from a family with five children. The entry shows four of the children have autism and the other spina bifida.

The family has requested only nappies. Pam collects the nappies to be packaged up.

“Seeing requests like this is heart breaking,” she says, as she includes a couple of extra small presents for the children’s mother in the package.

“It costs nothing to be nice to people,” she says.

Big Group Hug was founded by teacher Angela Wood at the time she had her own young children.

Angela was seeing recurringly cases were parents in her own community and in the news were struggling to provide essential items for their children. Recognising that she and her friends were in the position to give away items for free, but without a way to get them to the families in most need, Angela knew something had to change.

With some like-minded mums she began operating a donations hub from her garage. Since then it has grown into a key local community support group.

“My original vision, born after seeing a fellow mother in need, was to support my local community; now we assist families across Melbourne and regional Victoria,” Ms Wood says.

“This vision has come to fruition on scale I never could have imaging but often dreamed of, and it continues to thrive,” she says.

One of the beneficiaries of the organisation Angela started is a mum called ‘Jacinta’.

“When my relationship turned ugly, I knew I had to take my children and run. It was no longer safe for us and I didn’t want them to be exposed to this, thinking its normal,” Jacinta says.

“We left with nothing but the clothes on our backs… I had no idea what to do or even how to feed my kids.”

A case worker from community agency Uniting Kildonan approached Big Group Hug for support for Jacinta and her family, requesting warm clothing, nappies and toiletries.

“A few days later, my children and I were so grateful when we received the parcels from Big Group Hug. We left with nothing, so receiving these basic essentials really lifted our spirits and gave me some hope to keep moving forward,” Jacinta says.

Since rebuilding her life Jacinta now regularly donates to Big Group Hug and has become the organisation’s inaugural Ambassador.

Another recipient of Big Group Hug’s support is the Badoor family, refugees from Syria who arrived in November 2022 with little more than the clothes they wore.

Supported by refugee settlement agency AMES Australia, the family was provided with accommodation and basic Centrelink support.

Their AMES case manager reached out to Big Group Hug for some toys and books for the children   

Mum Manal and her children Georgie and Lydia were grateful for the toys, book and equipment supplied.

“We are so excited and so happy. We really appreciate the items and fantastic services we receive from Big Group Hug.” Manal says.

But Big Group Hug’s success has become a double edged sword. The organisation needs to move to a larger warehouse to cope with rising demand.

It will need to source extra funding to do so.

“We need to expand to meet the demand we are seeing so we will need to find a new space and extra money to pay the rent, electricity and other expenses,” Ms Voss says. “We are looking for warehouse space preferably in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, but we will look at all options available, including cohabitating with a like-minded welfare or environmental agency”.

Contact/donation details…

To support Big Group Hug, or receive aid for somebody in need, visit www.biggrouphug.org, or to speak with CEO Bernadene directly, email bernadene@biggrouphug.org