Surrounded by tins of soup, baked beans, canned fish and tinned vegetables at Anglicare's Mt Druitt Community Care Centre, you could be forgiven for thinking that getting emergency rations out to needy families must be a snap for the project co-ordinator John Roberts. Until he tells you how great the need is.
"At Mt Druitt alone, 20 families a day are helped out with food parcels "” and that's just one emergency relief centre [out of nine]," he says. "Quite a lot of food goes out with each family and we're open every day of the week. That's 300-400 tins a week in just one centre, so that mounts up pretty quickly."
Churches across Sydney collect food all year round for Anglicare, but two groups of churches in the Hills district and one on the North Shore run winter food drives that add tens of thousands of items in one hit.
The members of Dural District parish are old hands, having done their first food drive in 2004 after hearing how another parish in Sydney's south had collected food by doorknocking.
"We thought about it and decided that a community food drive would involve absolutely everybody," says Dural's rector, Fergus Semler.
"The issue isn't just about the food. We have always had three main objectives. We see it as a win for Anglicare because they're getting this extra food. It's a win for the church because we're working together, we're doing something positive with each other and people can mix across congregations. And it's a win for the broader community because they have a nice warm, fuzzy contact with the church that is really useful.
"People respond with a really warm heart and would hate to miss out on being able to give" on doorknocks people say, "We've been looking out for you this year "” hello again'."
The Hills food drive, which includes the three churches in Dural District plus Cherrybrook and Glenhaven, now collects 25,000 items a year.
The nerve centre for the North Shore's drive, which began last year, is St James', Turramurra with six other churches also taking part. Turramurra rector, Michael Stead, says they are dropping postcards into letterboxes to let residents know they will be calling. The postcard includes suggestions about items most needed and an Anglicare bag to put them in. Church members doorknock and collect items the following week.
"Last year… we literally filled up two three-tonne trucks," Dr Stead says. "We drop in a thank you card when we do the pick up" which also invites them to come to church."
