By Ava Cashmore
PRECEDE
Paddy’s kitchen has been serving the Pakenham community for almost 8 years, providing about 80-100 meals every Sunday of the year.
The kitchen supports local families and their children, and donations allow for it, they also provide additional essentials such as fruit and vegetables, and on occasions such as Easter and Christmas, chocolates and more, Gazette reporter AVA CASHMORE reports.
BREAKOUT
“It’s sad to see that people, so many people, are in such need. Our numbers have gone from 20 meals a week to 100 now.”
Paddy’s Kitchen serves 2 course takeaway meals every Sunday from St Patrick’s Pakenham, Parish Hall with service from 4 – 5pm.
Tresa Andrews, the coordinator of the kitchen, and Fiorella, one of six team leaders have been integral parts of the kitchen’s success since its founding eight years ago.
“We’ve always been there from day one. When the concept was initiated, it was put out through the parish church, and there were a number of members of the parish that were interested in the idea. We’ve got a group of about 6 leaders, and all of those team leaders are the original founders, right from the beginning.
“However, we have a number of volunteers who are not parishioners, who aren’t involved in the church in any way, shape, or format. For example, Voyage Fitness, they’re one of our great sponsors.”
The previous priest of St Patrick’s had suggested the idea, after previously establishing “Mick’s Kitchen” in Traralgon.
“Initially, we were a sit-down service. We used to sit down and have meals inside. But because of COVID, the needs have changed now. So, we just started giving out take-away meals. We judge the quantity that we cook on a weekly basis. So if we had 85 numbers coming through the door last week, we might cook 90 or 95 the next week. We ask for their Medicard so we know how many meals to provide each family.
“That way, we make sure we’ve got enough for everyone. If there are any new people who come along, there’s always a few spares. Also, we always have frozen stock in the freezer in case we do run out.”
In order to provide a variety of nutritious meals, “each leader is responsible for the meal they’re going to cook that week, so they cook what they know best. We’ve been told a number of times that our guests, as we call them, love the variety of food because it’s not the same thing every week.”
“When Tresa is on, she’ll cook a curry. When I’m on, I’ll make pasta or something like that.
Every week there’s a different menu, and it’s really good food. Always lots of vegetables. Always protein. There are two proteins in every meal, so at least if they can’t afford to spend a lot on meat, they’re getting it on their Sunday meals.”
The leaders of Paddy’s kitchen meet on Sunday and work from 12.30pm, making and preparing the meals, to serve them later in the day.
“It’s around four and a half hours for the whole cooking process and handing out the meals, but additionally, we do the recipes and things like that. On Friday, we usually come and look at what’s in the pantry to see what has been donated that we can use for the week.”
“Based on what we have, we set our menu. For example, we have beef all the time, so we make something with beef and then we buy the chicken. Connor’s Beef gives us huge 21 kilo pieces of roast each month.
“It’s all donations and it’s amazing. The generosity of people.”
However, Paddy’s Kitchen are not only extending help to the Pakenham community, but have an outreach for anyone who is in need.
“We even had people in at one point from near the city coming to us.”
“It’s sad to see that people, so many people, are in such need. Our numbers have gone from 20 meals a week to 100 now.”
Paddy’s kitchen also thrives within the interconnected relationship between other local food kitchens and donors.
“We are really supportive of each other. For example, we’ve had groceries that have been donated to us, and then we’ve donated them to Sammy’s community kitchen so that she’s been able to put them in her pantry. In return, whenever she has new people come through needing support, she’ll suggest us to them. It’s that thing of supporting each other, these small groups that are just trying to make a small difference.”
“Also, we get some bigger donations from Frankie’s Cafe. They give us frozen quiches and apples.
“The owner of the cafe also runs Frankie’s Community Kitchen, a branch off of the cafe based in Warragul. They have their kind of outreach program where they make ready-to-eat meals, meals that you can eat in hand so that if you’re homeless, you can literally just hold a quiche and eat it. They make a whole lot of food and then they spread it out to groups like us and we find that it’s really good with families in particular. A lot of the kids that come to get meals with us love them, because they love it for their lunchbox.
“The people that are coming to us for meals are so grateful that they often return something back to us, which is just mind-boggling. They’re very sensible when they take the food. If they see that there’s not enough dessert, they’ll say to give it to the family who’s got children.”
However, it is very difficult to involve student and parent volunteers in the actual process of making and serving the food.
“We can’t have children below 18 inside the kitchen. It’s about duty of care and all the other legalities. Even if parents are there, it’s a little bit tricky because even though we used to have the school children coming and helping us, it’s often a lot of school families that are in need, and coming to be recipients of our service, and we need to take care of their privacy.
“We try to just make it as painless and easy as possible, we don’t ask them too many questions also. We don’t even ask their names. They show their Medicare card, we check the numbers and give it back. Sometimes they’ll say, ‘I forgot to bring it but I need four boxes’, and we just trust them. Until they say I need 12 boxes. It’s all trust, but I think when people make the effort to come down to us, the need is there.”
Paddy’s Kitchen and the volunteers that forge its success continue to grow and develop, with their most recent project being a “back-to-school drive”.
Fiorella spurred this idea, highlighting “through my work, I sent out an email and asked for people to donate boxes of cereal, long-life milk and lunchbox snacks. We had so many donations come in. From that, we made these back-to-school packs, which had a couple of boxes of cereal, some milk in it and muesli bars. Then over a three week period, we gave them out to people who were coming for their meals, so they had something to prepare their kids for the start of school.”
However, Paddy’s Kitchen is totally funded by donations.
On average, each meal costs $3 to $4 to produce, “so it costs around $300 to $400 each week, depending on the donations received”.
“Now we need more food and we need more funds. We put it out in the Parish community, and will be hosting a barbecue at Bunnings to get some cash donations to make sure that we can keep operating.”
“It’s actually mainly for the community to know that we are here. It’s not about the money, it’s for the community to know that Paddy’s Kitchen is there for them.”
