The smile on Winsome Lismore Soup Kitchen Project Manager Steve Smith's face was $80,000 wide as LJ Hooker presented him with the cheque that helps finish the Winsome rebuild so they can start serving meals and helping those disadvantaged in our community.

Principal of LJ Hooker Lismore Michelle Mitchell told the Lismore App the money was raised in a one-off event in Sydney where three staff, some flood-affected, attended to tell their story and Lismore's.

Ticket sales and generous auction items of signed football jerseys, holidays and surfboards was how the $80,000 plus amount was raised.

“Our office has and always will be a community-focused office, that’s why we are delighted to present a cheque today for $80,947.39 to the Lismore Soup Kitchen,” Michelle said.

"We just feel blessed to be able to do this, you just wish you could do this every day."

Steve Smith from Winsome started by thanking Michelle and all the team at LJ Hooker for the very generous donation.

"We've had to rebuild the entire ground floor of the soup kitchen here," Steve said, "Every aspect of the building was impacted heavily by the floods. So we've redone all the electrical, all the fire system, and we've rebuilt the entire floor to be flood resilient for the future. So, every surface and every wall has been stripped back to brick, and polished and sealed. Wherever possible we've used flood-resilient materials to enable us to be more prepared for any future events."

"Currently, our big work is going on in the kitchen to get that back up to full functionality and when we do, we'll be able to go back to serving up to about 90 meals a day, which translates to about 30,000 meals a year for the disadvantaged."

Steve mentioned the patrons that have been long-term attendees of the Winsome especially those that experience homelessness that rely on their services.

"They do rely on us in a big way, particularly now with increased living expenses, especially the rental hikes that we've seen recently. So, for those of them that are in paid accommodation, it's a huge benefit for them to access a secure fresh, wholesome, nutritious meal every day plus a whole range of other services, clothing, personal hygiene items, footwear, sleeping bags, swags tents where applicable."

For those that are not familiar with the services the Winsome offers, the list continues.

"We also do referrals to our visiting GP here on a Wednesday. We have nurses coming as well, and a connection to other services, so, Legal Aid, financial counsellors, Centrelink, housing and homelessness services and mental health services."

The visiting doctors are Dr Tony Lembke and Dr Luke Hogan from the Alstonville Clinic.

As far as dates go for the kitchen rebuild to be complete and operational, mid-November is the target for Steve.

"We're saying November. I mean, ideally mid-November, we would hope but, you know, throughout the entire eight-month project already we've just encountered numerous delays and it's just the way of things at the moment with trades, and especially specialist trades, being completely pulled in so many different directions and continually facing delays left, right and centre. So, I'd say mid to late November is an optimistic sort of goal."

While the kitchen is four to six weeks away, the cafe is a lot closer to being finished and ready to serve the disadvantaged for the first time since February 28.

"The cafe here is all but complete. We're sanding the floors today and we'll seal them on Friday and then plumbers come in on Monday to finalise the plumbing to our cafeteria bar. So we'll have a new coffee machine up and up and running and six operational.

Nearly eight months of pain and backbreaking work is about to be realised for the Winsome crew. There will be a graduated opening via the cafe in a week or so before the official reopening when meals can be served once again.

Deputy Mayor Jeri Hall said, "It's great to see such a vital charity receive this money. This will help some of our most vulnerable."

Lismore Soup Kitchen President Meika Bell said, “This generous donation will continue to help people get back into their homes.”

“Here at the Lismore Soup Kitchen, we have been lucky enough to engage with some handy and Trades people to assist. We call this group our small task force. They have been with us for over 7 months and will continue to help people get back in their own homes.”

“Our Taskforce has re-cladded rooms and gave people a helping hand to have a couple of rooms restored in their property. This has been particularly helpful over the winter months”

“By having people back in their own home and community has empowered them to keep going. We are truly grateful for this money and look forward to helping as many as we can.” Meika Bell Said

It won't be long before Michelle Mitchell and the LJ Hooker team can once again generously donate their time to supply and cook meals once a month and provide Christmas hampers, which is only ten weeks away.

As LJ Hooker said, "Lismore has a long way to go but a little kindness goes a long way."