Bunnings, 290-298 Millers Rd, Altona. Phone: 8331 5800
At just about high noon, as I depart the parking lot at the Altona branch of Bunnings, I am liberally adorned with the not unpleasant pong of Aroma de Sausage Sizzle.
This seems a small price to pay for the fun of watching the happy and hard-working crew from Seaholme Primary School going about the serious business of raising funds for their school via a Bunnings sausage sizzle.
Not to mention the scarfing of two delicious snags on bread, hold the onions, judicious dabs of tomato sauce and mustard.
The previous year, they’d raised $1200 and this year they’re looking to do significantly better.
I reckon their chances are looking pretty good.
There’s an ebb and flow to the sausage trade this morning, but it’s pretty intense, and there seems to be a rush hour, well, every 10 minutes or so.
Just about everyone who is done with their chores at Bunnings, and more than a few just starting, seems to stop by for snags for themselves and their families.
Bolstering the air of optimism among Team Seaholme is the fact that the following day is Fathers Day, so Bunnings is likely to be doing a roaring trade.
The school’s sausage sizzle co-ordinator, Suzanne Croft (that’s her in the pic above, with sunnies, third from right) fills me on the preparations required to get the show up and running.
The sausage sizzles are so popular and such an effective method of raising desperately needed money for all sorts of community groups that the waiting lists can often be longer than six months.
Bunnings supplies the cooking facilities and marquee, the community groups supply the rest.
Suzanne sourced the bread and sausages (at $4 a kilogram) from Aussie Farmers Direct. The local franchise holder is a school parent, but Suzanne tells me this sort of community engagement is what the company does anyhow.
She hit up various local supermarkets for vouchers she redeemed for canned soft drinks and condiments.
She estimates the cash outgoings for the school at about $50.
They’re selling snags for $2.50 and drinks for $1.50 – and it’s just about all profit.
These sausage sizzles are undoubtedly a good look and good business for Bunnings, but I reckon they’re pretty much a win-win situation all round – making a lot of people happy and doing good, too.
They’ve certainly become a colourful, notable part of the Australian weekend landscape.
Officeworks do them, too.
And as I head for Sunshine Fresh Food Market, I pass another in the forecourt of Tasman Market Fresh Meats in Brooklyn.
Sure seems to beat the drip-drip-drip and rather passive fundraising method of flogging sad-sack chocolate bears and other candy in workplaces!
***
Post-script:
Hi Kenny,
Just thought I’d drop you a line and let you know that on Saturday we made a profit of $1,553 from the Bunnings BBQ for our school – Seaholme Primary.
I hope you enjoyed the sausage … we had many comments approving of them. It would be great if you could mention that Aussie Farmers Direct were the suppliers of those sausages.
Cheers, Suzanne Croft.
consider the sauce 
My favourite type of fundraising 🙂 My preferred “local” is the Maribyrnong Harvey Norman sausage sizzle. The groups cooking there often cook up kranskys as well as plain old sosso’s. You could even go on a BBQ crawl from there to the Bunnings across the car park, and sometimes there’s another one down the road outside Retravision.
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Good spotting there, Juz! BBQ crawl – I love it.
Kranskys at these sort of bashes? Maybe. Lots to be said for your humble snag in sliced white bread, though.
Harvry Norman? Yech! I dislike the stores. I dislike the service. I especially loathe the campaign – the flaccid, laughable, whining campaign – going on regarding the harm online sales are doing to these jokers. Listen, pal, dump a 10% GST on my books and music purchases, AND I’LL STILL BE DOING MY SHOPPING ONLINE. It’ll still be cheaper. AND I can get the stuff I want and need. AND the experience is mostly a gas.
My music and reading tastes are on the arcane side. But I can and do buy from bricks and mortar on occasion, happily paying over the odds when I do – Hound Dog’s Bop Shop, Minotaur. But Harvey and his whining mates just don’t get it. Or perhaps they do, but are ineffectively scrambling to shore up their years-old market hold. Whatever. Hey, guys the world has changed.
Hurmpphhh. (Sound of Kenny clearing his throat …)
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Kenny you’re on the money, the only good thing about Harvey Norman is their sausage sizzle. Gerry Harvey is a nong and I can’t believe the rubbish he spouts. We’ve been inside the Maribyrnong Harvey’s twice (as opposed to eating the sausages) and both times I’ve wanted to bolt as quickly as possible.
But they have kranskys in the car park… Have to agree to disagree with you on that one!
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I considered the sausage sizzle to be the highlight of Bunnings Altona (I’m not into DIY). Loved the sausages with tomato sauce, mustard, onions and can of Coke 🙂
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Yes! Sometimes can’t be beat.
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