“People like to see kind stories in the media. The kind stories matter. The kindness matters. But people are being forced to ask why we need to be kind. And that is what we need to think about and respond to most of all. Why is it that we need to be kind?”
Erin and her two children, Yasmin and Ali, came to help at Addi Road Food Relief Hub: “It just feels good to give back.”
“It feels good to communicate and work together. To be a part of it all together.”
Another end of day, only a trace of last bird call to see us into the evening. This place is a home to a lot of people, and a backstop to many more. Right now, Addi Road is serving as a lynch-pin between the larger food relief organisations and a plethora of civil society groups, charity and community organisations…
The playlist in the hall rocks along to Johnny Cash’s ‘Ring of Fire’ and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Down on the Corner’. Someone must like their old classics. Volunteers packing hamper boxes inside the Addi Road Food Relief Hub pick up on the musical tempo.
You can feel isolated at home, frustrated, a little unable to find yourself clearly in the disempowering blur of lockdown days. Working at Addi Road Food Pantry has a meaningful value. It lifts the spirits. It’s especially inspiring to volunteer and hear everybody’s stories as they come for food.
“Working here … you see a lot of people giving. It affects me a lot because it really does fill my heart with happiness to be in the middle of it all, helping out with everyone else.” – Mary
Estelle has been volunteering at Addi Road Food Pantry Marrickville for the last year. “It’s been fun,” she says. “The people are nice. There’s such a variety of people from all steps of life who volunteer here … “
“Unfortunately, we’ve been given this idea that we can’t create change without having money first. But we can make change. And we don’t have to be rich to do it.”
“Right now I feel that the music of Brahms and this community [at Addi Road] break me free into some other feeling. I was here alone. This community help me. But it is about a lot more than food.”
