Paula Lara and Louise Doyle are two of Sydney’s quiet achievers, enriching countless lives through their food charity efforts across the city’s inner and Eastern Suburbs.
Between them, the friends help hundreds of people financially struggling each week to cope with rising grocery prices, backed by dozens of enthusiastic mums, dads and kids who are only too eager to get involved.
The duo are family educators, supporting families and faith within Sydney Catholic Schools.
Paula works at St Therese Catholic Primary School, Mascot. She is also a co-founder of Plates4Mates which runs a Sunday afternoon meal service in Royal Prince Alfred Park, feeding an average of 170-200 hungry people each week.
It began with an invitation to anyone to simply “bring a plate” to share with the homeless every Sunday afternoon, and is now a registered charity offering food, clothing and toiletries with an ever-growing number of volunteers and business partners.
The need is growing too, although Paula never knows how many people will turn up for a meal she says as Christmas approaches with the resulting strain on already-stretched budgets it can easily be 200 each week.
“We found there was so much red tape for people who just wanted to make and serve meals to the homeless community. Our premise is, you don’t need a reason to help people,” Paula explained.
“As a grassroots initiative we allow anyone to volunteer and make it very easy for them to do so and we don’t have any requirements for people accessing food, clothing or toiletries.
“Families love volunteering together, teenagers volunteer to do hours for their Duke of Edinburgh awards, and young kids love giving back.
“We meet the needs of a lot of vulnerable people in the community. When we began it was 90 per cent men who were sleeping rough or in transitional housing, but now we see a much more diverse range of people, including lots of women fleeing domestic violence and sometimes families with children.”
Louise, a family educator at St Brigid’s Catholic Primary School in Coogee, formed a food rescue partnership with the nearby Woolworths Metro in April this year.
Through a very active WhatsApp group, she now leads a daily service collecting unsold bread and other fresh food and distributing it to existing services across Maroubra, Botany, Mascot and Plates4Mates.
“A lot of people don’t realise the need in our local community,” said Louise.
“This isn’t just happening in other places out west or in the inner city, there are people in our own backyard who are suffering.
“The response from my school community has been outstanding. I got the ball rolling, but they have really taken ownership of this initiative for themselves, which as a family educator is exactly what you want.
“Most families have both parents working to be able to afford to live in the area, but with so many willing to help out, it’s not a burden on any one person.”
Both women say it’s simply about being a caring presence where they see a need for it.
In October, Foodbank released its latest Hunger Report which showed that almost half (48 percent) of low-income households and 21 per cent of higher income households have faced food insecurity during the year, the worst the situation has been since the cost-of-living crisis began.