Michelle Preston and Donna Falkener are doing their bit to support the invisible homeless along the Eurobodalla coast through OzHarvest.
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From their base at Ecotel at the northern end of Narooma, the two former nurses run a community pantry and also make up food packages that they distribute to homeless camps.
"There were the 2019/2020 fires, COVID and then floods," Ms Preston said.
"We thought oh my God, there is so much demand for food so we started the pantry."
The pair collect rescue food from Woolworths and Aldi twice a week to stock the pantry.
Ms Falkener said there were camps of homeless people "dotted all over the coast" to which they deliver food parcels.
She said it depended on the day, but there were groups of people at Mystery Bay, Moruya Heads and Brou Lake.
The Koori village at Wallaga Lake and the Little Yuin Aboriginal Day Care Centre nearby are also on their delivery route.
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A proportion of their fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and pantry items supply Monty's Place and The Good Folk Kitchen in Narooma, where teams of volunteers turn the ingredients into delicious and nutritious meals for those in need.
It is a virtuous circle because if there are any leftover meals at Monty's Place, they are given to OzHarvest to freeze and distribute.
No more government funding
For around 18 months when COVID first arrived, OzHarvest received government funding.
After that ended Ms Preston wondered "how are we going to go on?"
As it turned out, the community stepped up.
Community groups including Rotary, Quota and the Narooma UnitingCare Drop-in Centre regularly donate money, while Foodbank recently donated 50 boxes of food.
Individuals also support the cause.
"We had a $1000 donation and that gets us our meat packs for the next 10 weeks from Rapley's butcher," Ms Falkener said.
One woman helps by making soup and sweet treats like cup cakes and biscuits.
In addition to delivering the food packages, Ms Falkener and Ms Preston run a community pantry every Friday at the Ecotel where people in need can pick up supplies.
"We have a good rapport with the schools up and down the coast," which means they know when families are in need of food, Ms Falkener said.
"A couple of weeks ago, we had nine hampers going out to families in one week."
Ms Preston would like to introduce some of the national OzHarvest organisation's educational programs into schools.
She said the OzHarvest Nutrition Education Skills Training (NEST) goes into schools and teaches kids about food preparation, hygiene and budgeting.
"They show how easy it is to make a healthy meal instead of eating two-minute noodles," Ms Preston said.
As word spreads of OzHarvest Sapphire Coast Northern Chapter Ms Preston said "we are starting to get a lot more donations".
Like the community pantry and Ricky's Place in Bega, Ms Preston and Ms Falkener would be very appreciative of more volunteers to help collect rescue food, put together the food parcels and distribute them.