‘Shock’ decision for charity to vacate
One Meal has labelled as ‘devastating’ the decision by St Vincent de Paul Society NSW (SVDP) to reclaim its rent-free Brookvale premises on 1 November.
SVDP has allowed charity One Meal free use of the industrial warehouse – including electricity – for three years, but in January informed One Meal in writing that it wanted to sell the warehouse, and ordered the charity to vacate by 19 August.
From the warehouse, One Meal produces 20,000 meals a week (over one million a year) which are distributed to the needy of the Northern Beaches, and homeless shelters across Sydney.
“We’ve always got to reflect back on the three years we’ve had at no cost from SVDP and their generosity,” Mr Williams said. “But that still doesn’t take away that we would have loved them to have given us more forewarning.
“We didn’t see anything like this coming. And of course when it does come, it is a shock.”
Mr Williams said One Meal had been frantically searching for a new premises large enough to hold its army of volunteers and a kitchen, but availability of properties was ‘very slim.’ SVDP had offered a building in Hornsby, but Mr Williams said it was too far from where volunteers were based, and the community One Meal served. SVDP had also offered a discounted lease, which was ‘way beyond our financial means.’
The ‘100% volunteer-based’ charity operates solely on donations, and Recipe Tin Eats founder Nagi Maehashi has a kitchen dedicated to producing 620 meals a day which One Meal distributes. There are 3,000 registered volunteers, with 900 actively helping every month.
A spokesperson for SVDP said One Meal were given verbal notice last November of the closure, and that the deadline had just been extended to 1 November following discussions.
Regardless of what happens, Mr Williams said ‘we’re not going to stop.’
“We’ve put so much energy into this. What we have is a wonderful momentum of support through our community. And that’s hard to come by.
“It’s not looking good. But we are determined that we will maintain services the whole time we are going through this.”
One Meal is looking for a warehouse sized 550m2 to 600m2. Anyone who can help is urged to contact One Meal: info@onemeal.org.au
