On one winter’s evening my husband and I were walking along the Parramatta River when we encountered a man with worn dirty clothes and a trolly. When my husband approached him, he said that he was homeless and starving. Out of compassion we bought him a meal, some clothes and blankets. We found out that it was his first meal for the day.
Just seeing his joy brought tears to our eyes. The emotions we felt from this incident started us on a journey of providing a free food service to less fortunate people.
This started our investigation into the situation about homelessness in Sydney and we were astonished with the result. In NSW the share of the nation’s homeless increased from about 25% to a third, between 2001 and 2016, with most of the increase concentrated in Sydney (16.1% to 24.9%). The causes of homelessness are numerous and complex. Homelessness can be caused by poverty, unemployment or by a shortage of affordable housing, or it can be triggered by family breakdown, mental illness, sexual assault, addiction, financial difficulty, gambling or social interation.
We decided that the best way that we could contribute to the situation was to provide food to homeless people on a regular basis. Every weekend we prepare and pack food into takeaway containers. We started by feeding people on the streets of the Sydney CBD and then we approached Parramatta Council to secure a place to provide a food service to the people in the Western region of Sydney.
Together with our friends and family we are providing this service to homeless people in Parramatta, Blacktown and Liverpool. We cater for diversified foods like wraps, sandwiches, salads, soups, pasta, rice, curry, noodles, fruits, vegetables, juices and coffees for dining in or takeaway.
Our mission moving forward is to have mobile free food service to serve homeless people across Australia. We continue the service with the almighty’s blessing to make others smile.