5,000 struggling Sydney families will have their fill of food and hope this Christmas, thanks to Kevin Alexander and his army of Anglicare volunteers.
This year Kevin will oversee about 30 volunteers a day from parishes, schools and businesses packing more than 3,500 boxes of food and 1,500 bags of toys to match the needs of each family.
“Every code on our sheets is a real family,” he says.
“We know their boys and girls and their ages. We can tell that these people are really struggling by where the hamper orders come from.”
For more than 10 years Kevin has volunteered to help co-ordinate the task of packing the mountain of donated food and gifts from Anglicare’s Toys ‘n’ Tucker Christmas Appeal.
Over the years this dedicated team has worked in cramped quarters, old bank buildings and endured sweltering summer heat under a tin roof so that others who go without all year can have something to look forward to at Christmas.
While the work can be physically and mentally demanding, Kevin says the job is made easier by the personalities who have worked closely with him for more than seven years.
"We work as a team and get on with the job. After working with each other for so many years, we know what we all have to do," he says.
For Anglicare’s CEO Peter Kell, the hamper packing exercise is one of many great ways the organisation works in partnership with parishes to tangibly demonstrate the love of God to a fallen world.
"2005 has seen Anglicare staff and volunteers bring aid and comfort to over 400,000 people in Sydney and the Illawarra," he says.
"From children at risk, people with disabilities, families needing counselling or the basics of life, refugees, victims of natural disasters, desperately ill people in hospitals, prisoners in our gaols, and our frail aged " it is through partnerships with our local parishes we can us find ways to show God's love in practical ways to those who are in desperate need."
And Mr Kell says despite the challenges of hamper packing, it is this hope " that these families will one day come to realise just how much God loves them " that keeps Kevin and his team volunteering every year.
