Liverpool’s Rick Herrera named a Westfield Local Heroes finalist
YOU may have seen Rick Herrera before. He’s been feeding the homeless in Liverpool and beyond for several years and has now been named a finalist in Westfield’s Local Heroes program.
Liverpool
Don't miss out on the headlines from Liverpool. Followed categories will be added to My News.
FACING homelessness and the collapse of his business, Rick Herrera had reached a low point in his life. But even then he was thinking of others before himself.
“I had a building company for years and my company had to close down. We’d gone bust,” he said.
“I lost my house, my family started to collapse a bit and we couldn’t even get a rental property. We were bankrupt.”
The Liverpool resident, 45, remembers sitting in the cold with his family one night as the moment he decided he could make a difference to the thousands of homeless people in the state.
Five years ago he began handing out meals to families in need and the homeless in Bigge Park.
He has also worked with the The Fontainebleau Motor Inn in Casula to lend a hand to people who have lost everything.
Mr Herrera’s work on the streets and in soup kitchens in southwest Sydney eventually led to the creation of SWAG Ministries Sydney in 2011, now SWAG Family Sydney, a not-for-profit operation that feeds the homeless in Liverpool and beyond.
It receives no government assistance and is entirely crowdsourced from the community.
Mr Herrera drives his van across the city, travelling an average of 2000km a week from Port Kembla to Martin Place and feeding up to 6000 people a month.
He has been named a finalist in Westfield’s Local Heroes program and is now in the running to win one of three $10,000 grants.
If he wins Mr Herrera plans to secure resources to keep SWAG going and repair his van, which was damaged by a truck in the course of helping out the homeless.
“What I tell people is it’s not a hand out, it’s a hand up,” he said.
“We don’t judge. My one thing I ask (of) all the volunteers is to come with a heart to serve and not to judge.”
IN RELATED NEWS
Even now, Mr Herrera knows intimately what it’s like to experience hardship; he was homeless and living out of his van for a period of two months until December last year.
“I know what it feels like when you’ve been given the hard run. but I also know what it feels like to want to do something about it,” he said.
Other finalists include The Yoga Impact Charity’s chief executive Danielle Begg, Grace Fava from the Autism Advisory and Support Service, Pat Hall from Liverpool Neighbourhood Connections, Jackie Lee from Make-A-Wish Australia and South West Community Transport Ltd’s Linda Margie.
Vote for your Westfield Local Hero at westfield.com.au/liverpool. Votes close July 1.