Nea Worrell helps Baradine see out the brutal drought
Years of co-ordinating Baradine’s Drought Aid Pantry in central NSW are finally over for community volunteer Nea Worrell, who holds out hope that this year’s season is a sign of things to come.
GREEN paddocks around Baradine are a sight for Nea Worrell’s sore eyes.
After years of soul-destroying drought, recent rain has been more than a relief for farmers and residents in the central NSW town.
The crops can’t grow quickly enough for 72-year-old Nea, whose volunteer efforts helped hold the community together during the extremely trying past few years.
“The town is still doing it tough, until we get a harvest. But we live in hope,” said Nea, who was co-ordinator of the CWA-organised Baradine Drought Aid Pantry during its operation from July 2018 to March this year.
In the role, Nea and a team sorted, stored and distributed donations of food, toiletries and essential supplies that rolled in from far and wide.
The pantry was set up in the town hall on short notice when Tamworth’s Sue-Ellen Wilkin offered to direct donations from her “Doing it for the Farmers” campaign to people across the region.
Sue-Ellen’s social media call out inspired hundreds of city residents to deliver everything from food and toiletries to homewares and animal feed to towns in need.
Motorcades would turn up with good intentions, but the items had to be stored and organised.
Nea whipped into action, turning the hall into a neat pantry and forming a committee to co-ordinate distribution.
“One weekend we did 90 hours to unpack stuff,” said Nea, who rears sheep and cattle, and grows crops, with her husband Gordon.
Margaret Williams was part of a caravan that delivered donations to Baradine, and said she was “absolutely in awe of what Nea and those women did”.
“She is an inspiration to so many in her community,” Margaret said.
Convincing people to accept the food and essentials was another problem.
“When we went out asking who needed help, we got the usual, ‘I don’t need it, so and so needs it more’,” Nea said.
“We eventually got them in. Then they’d tell us about other people.”
Nea’s support role extended to teaching farming men how to throw a chop in the bottom of a pan and cook a proper meal.
“We worked with the farmers’ group just to bring people together,” she said. “We found out some of the men were having Weetbix for tea. We said you can’t do that.”
She said the pantry’s biggest accomplishment was providing grassroots mental and emotional support.
“It was a big community effort,” she said. “It really brought the city and the country together. People still care for people.”
While the Drought Aid Pantry has wound up its work and Nea has retired from the CWA, she is looking forward to bringing the community together again, this time to celebrate a highly anticipated harvest.
Nea is a nominee in The Weekly Times Shine Awards, supported by Harvey Norman.
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