Church given eight pallets of food to make hampers

Hampers will be available for just $2 for those doing it tough during coronavirus crisis.

GIVE AWAY: Gatton Seventh Day Adventist church pastor Darryl Groves with a food hamper. Picture: Dominic Elsome

A GATTON church is planning to turn Good Friday into a great Friday by distributing more than eight pallets of groceries to the needy.

The Gatton Seventh Day Adventist Church’s food pantry service has received a truckload of grocery donations from Second Bite and Coles to distribute to the needy.

Pastor Darryl Groves said the food service had experienced a big increase in demand in recent weeks.

“There’s a lot of people that will just struggle on a little bit longer … I think that demand is going to keep going up,” Mr Groves said.

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The donated goods will arrive on Thursday and a team of volunteers will package the items into food hampers that afternoon.

The service will only be charging the cost of the packing for the hampers – just $2.

Mr Groves encouraged the community to “dob in” a neighbour or friend in need.

“I know that there’s a lot of needy people that won’t come forward,” he said.

“(The community can) say, ‘Well look I know our neighbour up the road is doing it really tough’.

“Get a message to us – we’ll drop it off, nobody needs to know where it comes from.”

Concerned residents are also welcome to collect a hamper to take to someone they feel is in need.

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The pantry will be open from 10am on Friday for pensioners, 11am for single mothers and then from noon for the rest of the community.

The church is also continuing to provide free meals from its soup kitchen every Monday as a takeaway service from 6.30pm.

If you want to make the team aware of someone in need, or would like to volunteer to help with preparation, call Mr Groves on 0414 322 261.

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