Riverstone resident Emma Dehnen and Blacktown resident Wendie Lambert have been nominated for the University of Western Sydney’s 2013 Women of the West Awards, which honour women’s contributions to the region.
Ms Dehnen is a volunteer fundraiser for non-profit group Food Within, a bartering project where people work on community projects in exchange for affordable fruit, vegetables, meat and pantry items.
She has established cooking classes to show families who do not know how to prepare healthy meals with the items they work for or purchase, and often completes administrative work for the group.
Ms Dehnen also helped to establish the organisation’s lunch box initiative, to provide workers with healthy lunch options.
Ms Lambert is the president of Blacktown Computer Pals, which provides information technology classes to older residents and acts as a community hub for isolated seniors, helps residents to access the internet and use social media including Facebook, Twitter and Skype.
Since she joined the group it has gone from an unfunded program with less than a dozen clients to a professional organisation that runs 26 classes each week and has 78 volunteer staff.
The awards will be presented on March 8.