The Boxing Day fire damaged the fine foods and laundry operations at Flagstaff. Photo: Flagstaff.
The Flagstaff Group is trying to find ways to continue operations and support around 90 employees who were stood down after a fire ripped through their laundry and fine food businesses on Boxing Day.
The blaze, which broke out at the organisation’s main premises on Nolan Street in Unanderra, caused significant damage to the kitchen and laundry areas which rendered them unsuitable to continue operations.
The organisation has implemented a business continuity plan to try to get back on its feet, and Flagstaff CEO Rodney Von Clark said employees who were out of work were the main priority.
“For our employees that are on stand-down it’s been really important that we continue providing support,” he said.
“We’re in constant communication with them by providing meaningful activities for them to engage in. We’ve got various capacity building and social programs that we are delivering for our employees on stand-down as well as we’re offering and organising group and individual counselling services and some positive mental health programs as well.”
Flagstaff is working hard to ensure employees have safe workplaces to return to and determine whether there are opportunities for employment in the organisation’s other departments.
“We look at the work that we have and we’ve been able to relocate some of our employees and staff into some of our other businesses,” Rodney said. “And that is a way that people can support Flagstaff – by understanding that we have other businesses, we have our paper and cardboard recycling, we have our mail and digital and we have our ground maintenance crews.”
While the laundry facility could return to full capacity in the coming weeks and months, the impact to the food operations was much more severe.
The service, which provides food for the likes of Meals on Wheels, NDIS and My Aged Care recipients, will essentially need to start from scratch, with the organisation now searching for potential opportunities to set up elsewhere.
“I have been having meetings with some of our partners that might have space and have production rooms and commercial kitchens where we may be able to produce the meals offsite,” Rodney said.
“However there is a lot of moving parts and there’s a lot of considerations to ensure the quality of the meals we produce is at the same as before the fire.”
He said that customers returning to their services will be vital in the recovery.
“If we can continue to grow our laundry while our fine foods is looking for areas, then building on that will make sure that we can actually offer people employment in our other businesses.
“So, if our customers who have left us due to the impact of the fire think it would be viable to come back and support us that would mean there are more opportunities for our employees.”
Other businesses and the wider community can also support Flagstaff by partnering with them to offer Access2Work employment, hosting a tour for skill-building, or providing other opportunities.
“If there is any opportunity for work experience, or volunteering, there are a lot of our employees that have indicated that they would like to use this time to engage in those activities,” Rodney said.
“Also, if there’s other community groups that would like to work with us to host inclusive activities – our employees enjoy meeting new people and trying new hobbies or sports – that’d be very helpful as well.”
People can also show their support by sponsoring a program, donating whitegoods such as new fridges, microwaves, lunchroom furniture, fans and sensory equipment to rebuild temporary staff areas, or by making a donation to Flagstaff through the website to help them continue to offer as many workplace opportunities as possible.
“It’s a very unfortunate incident but Flagstaff’s purpose is to provide meaningful employment and life skills with people with disability and our focus is to continue to meet our purpose.”
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