Paula Lara and Louise Doyle are two of Sydney’s quiet achievers, enriching countless lives through their food charity efforts across the city’s inner and Eastern Suburbs. Source: The Catholic Weekly.
Between them, the friends help hundreds of people financially struggling each week to cope with rising grocery prices, backed by dozens of enthusiastic mums, dads and kids who are only too eager to get involved.
The duo are family educators, supporting families and faith within Sydney Catholic Schools.
Ms Lara works at St Therese Catholic Primary School, Mascot. She is also a co-founder of Plates4Mates which runs a Sunday afternoon meal service in Royal Prince Alfred Park, feeding an average of 170-200 hungry people each week.
It began with an invitation to anyone to simply “bring a plate” to share with the homeless every Sunday afternoon, and is now a registered charity offering food, clothing and toiletries with an ever-growing number of volunteers and business partners.
The need is growing, too, although Ms Lara never knows how many people will turn up for a meal, She says as Christmas approaches, with the resulting strain on already-stretched budgets, it can easily be 200 each week.
“We found there was so much red tape for people who just wanted to make and serve meals to the homeless community. Our premise is, you don’t need a reason to help people,” Ms Lara said.
“As a grassroots initiative we allow anyone to volunteer and make it very easy for them to do so and we don’t have any requirements for people accessing food, clothing or toiletries.”
Ms Doyle, a family educator at St Brigid’s Catholic Primary School in Coogee, formed a food rescue partnership with the nearby Woolworths Metro in April this year.
Through a very active WhatsApp group, she now leads a daily service collecting unsold bread and other fresh food and distributing it to existing services across Maroubra, Botany, Mascot and Plates4Mates.
“A lot of people don’t realise the need in our local community,” Ms Doyle said.
Both women say it’s simply about being a caring presence where they see a need for it.
FULL STORY
Two women and their mates helping to solve Sydney’s hunger crisis (By Marilyn Rodrigues, The Catholic Weekly)
