Zoo Fitness, Penrith business leaders donate $15k food for children

Sydney’s lockdown means many children who rely on teachers and schools to feed them are going hungry.

Kids in lockdown are starving, many rely on teachers and staff to feed them, their home lives are a struggle, and schools are one place where they can find a meal.

One Penrith businessman, who grew up looking at empty cupboards and a mum who struggled with booze, is doing something about it.

Over the past five weeks Zoo Fitness owner Jason Lapin, his members, Penrith business leaders and anyone who could help put more than $15,000 worth of food on these children’s tables. But according to Lapin it is just scratching the surface.

“It has opened my eyes up, as a kid I was exposed to it but I am in shock over what I have seen,” Lapin said.

Five weeks ago Lapin was told by one of his fitness trainers who works as a welfare officer at Chifley College that some kids are going hungry because school wasn’t open to feed them. The College is in Mount Druitt, one of the poorest areas in Australia where 74.7 per cent of households earn less than $2000 a week, 44.8 per cent just $1250, compared to 32.9 per cent and 47.4 per cent for Greater Sydney respectively.

Pictured at their home in Penrith with a delivered food hamper is Levi Legg, Ari Legg and Brodie Legg. Picture: Richard Dobson

“I am a housing commission kid,” Lapin said.

“I have been through what these kids are going through, my mum was an alcoholic and I used to go and see her at (rehabilitation centres).

“I know what it is like to look in the cupboard and have no food.

“When we were talking about these kids I had massive flashbacks to my childhood and knew I had to do something.”

Lapin and his wife Tracey asked for help from their 4500 gym members and have been bombarded with offers of cash donations of boxes, cartons, pallets and hampers of food, water, cosmetics, sanitary products and manpower.

On Tuesday they had their biggest food drive yet, delivering 55 hampers to families in the region and a further half a dozen on Wednesday.

“We were worried people would say ‘I did my bit last week’ and it would taper off but our members and the community just kept chipping in,” Mrs Lapin said.

“They don’t feel guilty, these people feel lucky and are financially OK that they are more than happy to put their hands in their pocket.

“If they don’t do that, they come and help us pack boxes.”The more they help the more they realise the magnitude of the problem.

Jason Lapin. Jason and members of the Penrith community have delivered about $15000 worth of donated food to hungry kids and vulnerable people over the past five weeks. Picture: Richard Dobson

“More people just keep on reaching out,” Mrs Lapin said.

“Other teachers have reached out and said ‘I know you are helping out these kids, can you help us out?’

“Today we helped kids from a school just 2km from Penrith, this problem isn’t far from home.”

She also said new mothers and people who were forced to self-isolate were reaching out for help as they struggled to survive without their support networks.

Lapin said he doesn’t have the solution to fix the problem but with his gym forced to close during lockdown, he and his community would continue to do what they could to fill the cracks these vulnerable people were falling into.