LinC Yarra Valley Volunteer Recognised in Casey Community Awards

LinC Yarra Valley is proud to congratulate Mark Knoll, a recent recipient of the Casey Volunteer Award.

Mark oversees our weekly, multi-site Social Supermarket program and leads the Yarra Junction site. Week in, week out, Mark and his team of volunteers show up with calm competence and big-hearted consistency, working tirelessly to ensure locals doing it tough can access free fresh food and practical support.

The Social Supermarket is about more than food. It’s a place where people are met with dignity, where stress is eased in small but meaningful ways, and where a simple “we’re glad you’re here” can shift the weight of a week.

Practical help, and pathways to support

Mark’s leadership also helps ensure that people who need extra assistance can be linked in with the right support. Where appropriate, clients can be connected through referrals to our Crisis Support Team and to local service agencies, so that food relief becomes part of a wider network of care and practical follow-up.

Celebrating a well-earned recognition

Mark Knoll is pictured below with the other award recipients, and with the LinC Yarra Junction Social Supermarket team.

We’re grateful for Mark’s steady leadership, and for every volunteer who makes this program possible. Awards matter, not because they change the work, but because they shine a light on the quiet people who keep doing it.

Yarra Junction Social Supermarket: December and January service

A reminder for the community:

• The Yarra Junction Social Supermarket program will continue through December and January at the Upper Yarra Family Centre every Friday at 12.30pm.
• Please enter via the Library entrance only.

The bigger story: volunteers, impact, and a community that keeps showing up

Mark’s recognition sits inside a much bigger story, one that LinC sees every week across our sites: volunteers turning up early, lifting crates, making tea, listening carefully, offering a next step, and creating the kind of practical kindness that changes a person’s day.

If you’d like a fuller picture of what this work looks like across LinC, including our recent Community Impact update and the Volunteer Service Awards, you can read the AGM wrap-up here:

To Mark, and to every volunteer who serves beside him: thank you. Your consistency is the quiet scaffolding of hope, and our community is stronger because of it.