To commemorate the anniversary of the 2022 February 28 natural disaster, we at the Lismore App are celebrating the Bloody Legends of Lismore.

We want to look at the people and companies that really stood up in the community's time of need. Those that not only went above and beyond at the time but continue to help the community as the rebuild takes shape.

Wednesday, we launched with Joel Jensen Constructions, Thursday was Resilient Lismore, Friday was Southern Cross University and today is Sony Singh.

Sony was not alone in helping feed the Lismore community, all the people that did are also Bloody Legends. I kept bumping into Sony at various events when he worked security to earn money for his family because his Masala Indian Fusion Restaurant and Lismore's first Indian Grocery Store went under water in Keen Street. No matter what he was doing, Sony always turned up two days a week to cook and feed those that needed a hot meal.

"We first started on the 1st of March in the evening. We start serving meals with the Sikh volunteers through the van and then we continued every day till 12th of March."

The Sikh volunteers that Sony is referring to are the six members of Sikh Volunteers Australia who drove up from Melbourne after hearing of our devastating situation.

"One of them, we used to go school together. So, when they found out that Lismore has the biggest floods they contacted me and we agreed they would drive up. I don't know which route they took but they finally got here the next day after being stuck in Grafton while the roads were blocked."

"And then from the first of March, we've been cooking and setting up a commercial kitchen in my garage and cooked every day. They stayed at my home so we could start cooking at 6 o'clock in the morning."

"We had two vans delivering the food so we had one van parking out the front of my restaurant on Keen Street and one going to the Southern Cross Uni and GSAC Evacuation Centres."

"We were cooking between 800 and 1200 meals every day."

Who provided the funding to supply the meals?

"Cost-wise, I only supplied the gas which I managed to pinch the bottle from my restaurant, four 45 litre bottles and some of the groceries that I managed to save from my shop. The rest was paid for by the Sikh community donations and they brought some ingredients in the vans but that lasted only three days. Then some Sikh community in Woolgoolga dropped like a couple of pallets to cook."

"It was around the 10th or 12th of March when they needed to go back to Melbourne for their other tasks."

"After that, I still cooked between 80 and 100 meals a day leaving the containers in front of the restaurant."

"And that's when I found out the Koori Kitchen is doing meals too. There were people lining up for food and I wanted to join the team. That was before the second flood, which was about four or five days between the Sikh volunteers leaving and me joining the Koori Kitchen when they were near the pump station in the tent."

"They gave me a platform to just cook there. Some of the ingredients I had and some the Koori Kitchen provided and then later on the Sikh community in Brisbane were supplying the raw ingredients for me to cook."

"I was there until the 27th of August. My pot is a 250-litre pot which makes about 700-800 meals a day and sometimes I cooked with my big pot so around 1100 to 1200 meals a day."

"There were a lot of other cooks and chefs cooking there too so I was doing two days a week."

Sony cooked from March 10-12 until August 27 so around 24 weeks, even if we take the conservative estimate of 700 meals a day we are looking at Sony providing over 50,000 meals to the Lismore community.

"When the Koori Kitchen closed for two weeks in June, I went to cook at Trees Not Bombs then went back when they reopened."

"From 27 August, I said goodbye to all the team to come back and start to clean up my business so I can reopen. They were happy for me to focus on that."

"I put in 100%, 7 days a week to open up which we did on the 20th of October."

(Erin and Sony Singh out the front of their reopened Masala Indian Restaurant in Keen Street, Lismore)

How has business been since you reopened?

"Good, it's been good, picking up slowly. You know, the regulars coming back and it's been a good response from the community so thank you for them."

"In 2023, I would like to see our town come back in a more positive way and good things happen for all of us who live in this area."

"I can feel it's getting better but very slow. I'm hoping we get more customers back in town for all the businesses and I'm hoping a lot more businesses come back and reopen too."

Sony Singh.....another Lismore Blood Legend!