This year our group celebrates its 7th Birthday. Our work has consisted in providing monthly quality hot lunches for refugees and asylum seekers who attend the Asylum Seekers’ Centre in Newtown. Our teams are not only respected but truly cherished by these refugees and asylum seekers and by the staff.
This year as in 2018 the VDSA Lunch Project Group has impressively coped with the unpredictable number of lunch participants – sometimes sixty or seventy people. There have been times when our generosity in providing food for each meal has proved the only reliable resource and meal for the day. Fresh fruit is always in great demand. Any remaining food is carefully packed and happily carried to their homes by the refugees and asylum seekers.
Members of our teams arriving at the Centre can ask at the desk for one of their volunteers to give a hand in the kitchen at whatever stage of our lunches. This provision allows our busy team members to enjoy brief but rewarding moments of interaction with the during after their meal.
Finally, I wish to express my profound gratitude to all members of the Valerio Daniel De Simoni Lunch Group for their consistent commitment, kindness and generosity, and of course an additional heart-felt thank you to the people who contribute more than one lunch per year.
Mariella Totaro-Genevois
Coordinator, VDSA Lunch Project ASC
Leave a Reply