HEARTY HOME FOR THOSE IN NEED

Our Community Care Kitchen opened on 1 December 2021 in Bondi NSW with a compelling concept. Anyone in need may just turn up and be generously provided with a sit-down, hearty, home-cooked dinner topped off with dessert and hot beverages.

Volunteers not only serve but lend their ears to whoever wants to tell their stories, or simply to chat. Meals such as Mediterranean Braised Chicken, Lasagna, and Poulet au Riz are prepared by volunteers in their home kitchen.

Bondi, an iconic name known all over the world representing Australia’s reputation for a rich beach side lifestyle, is an unlikely place for a “soup kitchen”. Yet, with rising cost of living and mental illness, basic hostel accommodation for people on disability pension sit with expensive real estate.

Fr Anthony Robbie, Conventual Chaplain Ad Honorem, and parish priest of St Anne’s and St Patrick’s had needy people knocking on his door looking for food frequently. His proposal for the Order of run a kitchen for the needy based in the parish hall of St Patrick’s was immediately and enthusiastically accepted by Confrère Dr Steve Christie, Regional Hospitaller of Central Eastern Region.

The kitchen operates every Wednesday evening in the parish hall. Fr Robbie is one of the regular volunteers, along with a pool of 20 members and non-members. On the opening day, no one turned up. With leaflet drops in Bondi and surrounding suburbs and word of mouth, there are now an average of 15-20 guests each Wednesday evening. A few have returned to the Church.

Regular guests now sit in the same spots, telling us that there is a growing sense of belonging. Guests like the fact we “spoil” them with kindness in attentive service; and especially in the generous manner with which we listen to their stories. David survived a double lightning strike as a teenager.