Addi Road Food Pantry Marrickville is open again. It’s a warm, drizzly day in Sydney, one of those slow-down-even-if-you-want-to-go-fast days. Reflective time to take in the fact one year has passed and a new one is really here to stay a while.
What might that mean? Change is gonna come? Or business as usual, last year’s struggles and issues on the repeat button? It will take more than neat buzzwords like ‘resilience’ to get through. It will take substantial community support, engagement that grounds people in a few certainties, and reminders they are not alone in the struggle.
Customers take shelter on rows of plastic seats beneath a narrow verandah outside the Addi Road Food Pantry; more are standing on the road accepting the drizzle; others gather beneath a big tree immediately opposite the main entrance that children like to climb. You get that funny feeling of solidarity and loneliness, of need and play as everyone comes together, less of a shopping venture than something basic and shared, a way to stay human and connected.
In all, there are maybe thirty or so people inside the Food Pantry. Almost forty outside, waiting, chatting to one another or enjoying their own quiet. Steady as she goes. For $5 you can usually score about $20 worth of groceries, choosing from the shelves, fridges and freezers. Once you’ve spent your $5 you also qualify for free bread and a selection of free fruit and vegetables.
The operating structure means that people get whatever they like along with a guarantee of nutritional extras and staples like bread.
Our Addi Road volunteers keep the place humming. Our donors supply us with food, much of it rescued by us to prevent it from going into landfill and turning into greenhouse gases. Most of the people who shop at our pantry take some pride in helping us to do the right thing for the environment....
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READ the full story on our opening day for Addi Road Food Pantry Marrickville on the link below.
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