Food relief served with a smile

The Burleigh Church of Christ Food Help program is a vibrant and welcoming space – complete with live music and the comforting smells of freshly made coffee and sausages sizzling on a barbeque.

To give dignity and comfort to people seeking food relief, the Gold Coast church transforms its space every Friday morning – providing a real sense of community.

As people line up to wait for their turn for food help, they can enjoy the sounds of local band Quadro, who volunteer their time to play tunes from the 60s and 70s in the church’s courtyard.

There’s a coffee station where volunteers take orders and dish out big grins along with a warming tea or coffee.

And more volunteers dance along to the music in the back courtyard as they cook up sausages on the barbie to provide a warm and comforting snack.

Food recipients can work their way along the tables picking up fruit and vegetables rescued through SecondBite, pantry staples, bread, frozen meals made by church volunteers and finish at the “Abundance Table” which can include things such as cleaning and health products.

There is a shower onsite that food program clients can use and Orange Sky bring along their van so people can do their washing.

Meeting the high demand for food relief

Beached @ Burleigh Chaplain Ann Donnelly-Marshall said they used to have slow weeks at their Food Help program but that didn’t happen anymore as demand continued to grow.

“We get new people coming to our Food Help every single week, so the line for food gets longer and longer,” Ann said.

“This time last year we were feeding around 50 households and supporting more than 100 people every week. Now we’re consistently feeding 75 – 95 households and supporting up to 180 – 210 people a week.”

Ann (pictured above in blue) said there were people in their community who wouldn’t have nutritious food if it wasn’t for their Food Help program.

“People often say things like… ‘Thank you so much for what you do with your food program, as otherwise I would just be eating 2-minute noodles all week.”

Ann said their program was open to everyone, and they had a mixed demographic of pensioners, big families struggling to feed their kids, people who were experiencing homelessness and living in their cars or rough sleeping.

She said they were seeing an increase in people who were employed but low-wage earners, so their wages couldn’t cover all their living costs.

“Some people used to come fortnightly for Food Help, as they could afford to buy groceries one week a fortnight. But now they come every week as they can’t afford to buy food at all with the high cost of living.

For people living on a pension, 80% of their income might be taken up by rent – leaving very little money for food.”

Ann said they were grateful that some of their food recipients were invested in the community that helps them and gave back by volunteering their time at the food program.

Volunteer with a heart of gold gives back for the food she receives

Judi – known affectionately as ‘Mamma Jude’ – is one of those people who gives back for the food she receives at Burleigh Church of Christ by volunteering in their Food Help program.

A great-grandmother with a large extended family, Judi began struggling to afford food after her divorce left her broke.

She now relies on a government pension to get her through, and lives in community housing.

Back in the day, Judi was a long-haul truck-driver and with her then-husband delivered tonnes of fresh produce from farms to towns up and down the East Coast of Australia.

After many years of helping to feed entire towns with deliveries of fruit, vegetables, and meat, Judi now needed help.

She turned to the Burleigh Church of Christ Food Help program to support her and her grandson – who lives with her.

“I was struggling trying to feed my grandson and myself… I think the embarrassment of asking for help – a lot of people feel that.”

Judi said the food help she received from Burleigh Church of Christ made it easier to survive when she was making the tough choices between buying food, medication, and petrol.

“It’s a never-ending balancing act and if one cost blows out, things get pretty desperate.”

“You have to prioritise. Even though the medication is only $7.95, that means, ok, I can’t get half a dozen eggs…and you’ve got running costs…not only petrol, but things go wrong with cars and you need those things fixed.”

To give back to the Burleigh Church of Christ community for its support, Judi volunteers her time every Thursday.

She visits the Kings Community Care Hub with another volunteer to pick up the SecondBite donated food and sort it back at the church – ready for the Friday Food Help program.

“I love that we can give food to people who need it. It’s pretty brilliant.”

Donate now to SecondBite and help us provide more food to charity partners like Burleigh Church of Christ to support people in need.