d’Arcy Witherspoon Down to Earth charity: Ipswich man feeding hundreds of homeless people a week

An inspirational Ipswich youth has found a way to use recycled bottles and cans to help feed hundreds of homeless people a week.

An ambitious young man who works tirelessly around the clock is feeding hundreds of homeless people a week, all powered by cans and bottles and a burning desire to create lasting change.

After a difficult year in which he battled mental demons and struggled to find a purpose, d’Arcy Witherspoon bought a van in October 2019 and began driving around Ipswich with a portable gas stove to share a meal with those living rough.

Helping people on the street was something he’d done as a student at St Edmund’s College and everything seemed to click back into place.

d’Arcy Witherspoon is hoping to set up a base for his charity in conjunction with an Ipswich cafe in October.

He now has three vans and a team of about 30 volunteers working for his Down to Earth charity across Ipswich, Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

The team collects up to 5000 bottles and cans a week for the Containers for Change scheme, with the funds collected used to buy food, clothes and other essentials.

About 40 businesses have bins set up to collect cans for Down to Earth and sport clubs, schools and community groups are all on board.

The 22-year-old’s university studies have been put on the backburner for now and he is working closely with employer Woolworths on how they can change their approach to sustainability.

“That’s what my vision is,” he said.

“I want to help people using the waste that we have here in Australia. It’s really working but we can help even more people.

“I see myself in the sustainability sector or environmental sector. (Woolworths) is putting me into state meetings so I’m getting involved there and I have a bit of a say in what happens in some sustainability matters with Woolworths.

“(Setting up bins) is at no extra cost to businesses. It makes such a big difference.

Mr Witherspoon was nominated for 2021 Queensland’s Young Australians of the Year award.

“I’ve found some real gems. They’re just so driven. All they want do is help, help, help.”

Mr Witherspoon, who was nominated for 2021 Queensland’s Young Australians of the Year award and won the 2021 Ipswich Young Enviro Champion Award, is now in the process of setting up a “base” in conjunction with local cafe Oikos.

He hopes it will open in October and make the operation more efficient.

“I’ll still be in the field because I love it,” he said.

“But I need to knuckle down and think big. With a base we’ll be able to prep, cook up and then get one van in each place and feed three cities a night instead of one. I want to expand and get bigger.

“We’re implementing an electric bike and scooter system. We can load them in a van and use backpacks and go out and hand things out.

“That way we can feed even more people. We’ll be working smarter and saving emission costs.

The trailer was stolen from outside Mr Witherspoon’s Woodend home in the early hours of September 1.

“We can then go all over (Brisbane) city and South Bank and in (Fortitude Valley).”

Mr Witherspoon said he was determined to keep growing and help as many people as possible, despite a “bump in the road” which saw the trailer parked outside his house with enough cans to feed 150 people stolen by a group of masked people this month.

“It is a bit of a hit but nothing is going to stop us,” he said.

“I’ve been inundated with love and inundated with trailers. It’s classic Ipswich.”

Read more stories by Lachlan McIvor here.