The Parish is liaising with over 50 local families affected by the floods, as well as those who drop into the Pop-up Pantry, to support their recovery. Many, who have lost some, or all, of their possessions, cars, homes, treasured mementoes are unable to return to work until the clean-up is complete and their homes are livable again.

The assistance given ranges from providing shopping vouchers, shoes, hampers, groceries, cleaning supplies to school fees assistance, transport, accommodation, and special leave (for employees living in the affected areas). The Parish Pop-up Pantry is working in partnership with Christine Coorey from St Vincent de Paul to ensure those who require clothing have this need met.

The Parish is also providing practical support to the affected residents of Riverside Village, Edgewater Caravan Park and Brigadoon Caravan Park. For example, there are 27 Riverside Village residents being assisted with meals, food, toiletries, storage containers and so forth. Of these people, 16 need temporary accommodation.

The Parish is looking at the suitability of parish-owned properties to meet requests for temporary accommodation

What does our volunteer effort look like?

A team of nearly 60 people help with staffing the Pop-up Pantry in William Street so that it can be open 8am-5pm weekdays. A further 23 people registered to be part of our clean-up teams which gave direct support on the ground to those whose homes were inundated.

These volunteers are a wonderful, kind, mix of staff (from Parish services and schools), parishioners and members of the general community.

Parish employee and parishioner, Peter Johnson, has volunteered many hours as he leads our efforts to find temporary accommodation (if needed) and to help people get back into their homes especially at Riverside Village, Edgewater Caravan Park and Brigadoon.

Anne O’Brien, who is coordinating our efforts at the Pop-up Pantry, says she has several pantry angels who help deliver items to people in affected areas or drive people in to get what they need at the pantry.

‘It’s wonderful to see such happy cooperation and strong bonds of relationship being formed between people’, she said.

‘We even had a lady, Karen, and her daughter from Sydney who were on holidays come in to donate cleaning items and to help us with pick-ups and deliveries’, Anne added.

Above: Karen and her daughter from Sydney came into the Pop-up Pantry off the street join our recovery efforts.

Amazing donation support

So many generous people, from everywhere, have contributed to the recovery through donations of things like furniture, clothes, groceries, vouchers, cash and even Easter Eggs!

Cash donations have been used to purchase shopping vouchers so people can buy perishable products such as meat, fruit and vegetables as they need them.

A group from Crescent Head called ‘You have a friend’ contacted the Pop-up Pantry and delivered 45 humongous hampers for distribution to flood-affected families. Participants in an international online group ‘Zumba Fitness’, heard about the floods and made a sizeable cash donation to help with relief efforts.