Urban Angels feed rising demand in COVID-19 struggle

A Coast community kitchen has experienced a dramatic increase in demand during the COVID-19 pandemic and scrambled to support those doing it tough.

Urban Angels Community Kitchen manager Birgit Sowden with volunteer Gillian Bradley in the charity’s Nambour kitchen. Picture: Laura Pettigrew

From elderly residents unable to leave their homes to migrant families ineligible for government support, a community kitchen cooks more than 1000 meals a day to support the rising number of people doing it tough.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nambour's Urban Angels Community Kitchen cooked a few hundred meals a week but quickly increased their production to meet rising demand after countless COVID-19 job losses.

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Urban Angels Community Kitchen manager Birgit Sowden said high demand forced IFYS to acquire an additional kitchen that provided COVID safe working environments.

"We had to go from cooking a few hundred meals a week to 600 meals a day and within two weeks we were cooking 1000 meals a day across two kitchens," she said.

"We could only have a certain number of people in this space, so we rented another space and were doing up to 1200 meals a day, now that lockdown is over here we are … doing from 450 to 600 meals a day depending on how many volunteers.

"It was interesting I do confess to wondering if I could do it or not but … there is a certain structure that we use and stick to so I guess COVID gave us a chance to see if it works, and it did."

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nambour's Urban Angels Community Kitchen cooked a few hundred meals a week but quickly increased their production to meet the increasing demand for support. Picture: Laura Pettigrew

Mrs Sowden said job losses caused by COVID-19 meant there were many people doing it tough, including homeless, domestic violence victims, elderly community members and single parents.

She said migrant families and students were in particular need of support.

"We have been supporting the migrant students and families through neighbourhood centres too … they don't get any Centrelink and lost their jobs during COVID, so we have been able to support them by giving about 600 meals a week go to migrants," she said.

"There are many New Zealanders … this young woman who has three children, two of whom were born here, her husband died of cancer here and she was working but lost her job and she doesn't qualify for anything.

"There are many stories like that … and I don't know what would have happened to people like that if we were not able to help."

She said without dedicated volunteers and help from head chefs from Post Office, Nurture and Cafe V, it would be impossible to keep up with the "never ending" rotation of stock and meals.

"I couldn't do any of it without the kind people coming in every day," she said.

"I fully believe … that lovely saying from Helen Keller, 'alone we can do so little and together we can do so much'.

"It's a really powerful thing and I love the grassroots nature of mobilising the community helping the community and inspiring the community to help each other and that's at the heart of what we do."

Urban Angels Community Kitchen volunteer Pohling Lee hard at work cooking meals for the Coast community. Picture: Laura Pettigrew

Cooroy resident Gillian Bradley started volunteering at Urban Angels Community Kitchen three months ago and said she enjoyed helping the community through the difficult time.

"I'm an ex teacher and I just needed to do something, and it feels like we are doing something really worthwhile," she said.

Urban Angels Community Kitchen also support the Homelessness Hub at Kawana's Sports Hub.

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