Lennox Head kinder kids back The Good Pantry ahead of long-awaited reopening of Winsome in Lismore
A new charity was born out the recent flood devastation and is here to stay, while another much-loved service has reopened for those in desperate need. Find out more.
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Surveying the devastation of the Lismore floods, chaplain Ian Phillips’ first thought was the faces of those who didn’t even have homes to lose.
As the caretaker of the Lismore Soup Kitchen, known as the Winsome, Father Phillips and his team of 70 volunteers served 26,000 hot meals in 2021.
A service lost to the community when the facility was ravaged by flood water.
Now, the essential service will be reopening for the first time since the February on Monday, and they won’t just be providing a hot meal.
Winsome will continue to be a nexus for the crisis services like facilitating mental health services, substance abuse treatment, doctor’s clinics, psychology, financial counselling and chaplaincy.
“It’s that sense of building esteem but also community,” Father Phillips said.
The reopening will build on The Good Pantry – a discount grocery store started by the group in July in partnership with the Catholic Church which now supports about 1400 people in the region.
A recent drive for more hampers heading into this Christmas season has seen the community dig deep to support each other once again in the face of rising interest rises and many forced to pay mortgages on uninhabitable houses.
Father Phillips said every cent saved at The Good Pantry counted in more ways than one and thanked a recent food drive at the Harmony Early Learning Journey in Lennox Head.
“Doing a low cost grocery has just been so helpful for a lot of people, whether they’re unemployed or not,” Father Phillips said.
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