Choosing the Sunny Path: Multicultural Grassroots Hero Driving Victoria’s Community Response
For more than 25 years, Officer-based community leader Sukhvinder “Sunny” Duggal has been quietly mobilising multicultural volunteers, faith communities and local partners to deliver food, essentials and hope to Victorians in crisis – from Black Summer bushfires to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing cost-of-living squeeze.
Intro: A leader always on the road
Officer’s Sukhvinder “Sunny” Singh Duggal rarely has time to himself, constantly moving between meetings, food distribution sites and community events but he describes this hectic life as a source of “happiness, inner peace and strength”. After more than 25 years in Australia, his name has become synonymous with multicultural emergency relief and interfaith cooperation across Melbourne’s south-east and beyond.
Roots of Community Response Australia
Sunny’s journey is shaped by his childhood in Chandigarh, in India’s northern region, where his parents instilled a conviction that life offers only two paths negative or positive and that the only real option is to choose the right path and stay on it. That philosophy underpins Community Response Australia Inc. (CRA), the not-for-profit he leads from Officer that now supports Australians in need through rapid, targeted assistance during disasters, pandemics and hardship.
CRA emerged from community-driven efforts during the 2019–20 Black Summer bushfires, when multicultural volunteers coordinated through temples, mosques and gurdwaras delivered around 11 tonnes of food and even fodder for affected farmers in East Gippsland. Those networks solidified during COVID-19, when CRA volunteers worked up to 18 hours a day to deliver an estimated 40 tonnes of fresh food and around 100,000 meals to international students, vulnerable families and people in lockdown across Victoria.
Powered by faith, multicultural volunteers and partnerships
Sunny is a member of the Sant Nirankari Mission and describes CRA’s work as an expression of simple, selfless service guided by a living Guru and deep respect for all faiths. Under his leadership, CRA has become a bridge between more than 190 cultural communities, grassroots leaders and partner organisations, with volunteers often being the first to identify emerging needs at street level.
Operations are frequently based out of faith centres Sikh gurdwaras, temples and mosques which offer kitchens, storage and a ready pool of volunteers to prepare culturally appropriate meals and hampers. Beyond food, CRA also helps share public health messages about vaccination, boosters and COVID-safe behaviour in multiple languages, reaching communities that can be missed by mainstream channels.
Recognition and impact across Victoria
Sunny’s sustained contribution has been recognised through several honours, including the Multicultural Award for Excellence in Community Response and Recovery in 2020 and his recent inclusion on the Victorian Multicultural Honour Roll in 2025. The Honour Roll citation notes that he empowers migrant and refugee communities through tailored programs, youth mentorship, interfaith engagement and resilience-building initiatives that promote equity and unity.
He also serves with bodies such as the Cardinia Interfaith Network, the Victorian Multicultural Commission and mental health advocacy organisations, including as an ambassador with Mental Health Foundation Australia and through partnerships with Monash Health to support mental wellbeing programs. These roles extend CRA’s impact beyond immediate relief, linking food and essentials with longer-term mental health, skills and resilience outcomes.
Looking ahead: infrastructure for grassroots relief
Today, CRA continues to respond to floods, fires and financial stress, assisting anyone who reaches out or referring them to the right services when issues fall beyond its scope. As cost-of-living pressures intensify, Sunny argues that organisations like CRA need stable infrastructure a dedicated community centre where professionals and volunteers can coordinate relief and where people can walk in for support at the grassroots level.
He believes that with appropriate council backing and funding, CRA can scale up its model of multicultural, interfaith volunteering to reach more families facing food insecurity, rental stress and social isolation. For Sunny, the message remains simple: choosing the positive path of service is not just about helping others, but about sustaining inner peace and strength in a world marked by crisis and division.
Attribution: Berwick Star News, Community Response Australia
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