Starting a Soup Kitchen in Sydney

In February 2022, headed up by Ricaredo Del Costa (Sydney HOPE Rep), volunteers from the Sydney Church of Christ set up a Soup Kitchen to meet the needs of the vulnerable in Telopea, a western suburb of Sydney. HOPE worldwide Australia hires the Community Centre for a few hours on a Sunday night and on average 40 meals are prepared and served to the members of the community who attend. 
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The Sunday night mealtimes have an encouraging atmosphere- great food, light conversation and friendly service. Some of the regular volunteers are getting to know the community better, for example Emman, who is studying finance and banking at the university of Sydney and commits to serving weekly and is building trust through service and kind words. People from the community have also started to contribute, like Karin, who brought herbs from her back garden the other week.
The community response has been very positive: “We are very grateful” someone commented, “that there’s something happening like this in our area”. Towards the end of the meal serving times, volunteers put together between 30 to 50 packs of food that can be taken home to feed some of the family members (mainly children) who were not able to attend.
Thanks Sydney church for your service and caring hearts!