Who will feed the homeless in Lismore If the government bring in stricter rules to combat the spread of coronavirus?

That’s the question Winsome Soup Kitchen manager Sharon Dwyer asks as she prepares today’s take away meals for local homeless people.

“If we all have to stay indoors, who will feed them?” she asks.

“Will the government step up and shelter and feed people if we move to a new level of restrictions?

“We haven’t heard the government talk about homeless, just businesses and renters not being evicted.”

Sharon said even though the Winsome has closed as place to gather, the venue’s commercial kitchen is still making main meals daily and packing them into take away containers to be distributed at 11.30am.

“We have a hatch in the wall at the Winsome where people can come and get the food in a bag. They are being called the Winsome show bags,” she laughed.

“We cater for vegetarians too – people can have fruit, dessert and a sandwich and if they don’t have cutlery, we give them that too.

“We pass the bag through the hatch and encourage people to stay 1.5 metres apart in the line.

“We want to keep doing it as long as we can and we will keep discussing what to do when the next level of restrictions comes in.”

Winsome president Meike Bell said as well as food relief, the Winsome was also still providing support by giving clothes, toiletries, blankets and tents to people who needed them.

“We closed last Wednesday, but because we are still able to provide food, there is less anxiety in our people,” Meike said. “Food security for everybody is important – especially for those sleeping rough.

“The outreach services who used the visit can’t come here anymore – like Legal Aid, Centrelink and the doctor. I rang them all last week when we decided to close and they had all done their own risk assessments and decided to stop coming anyway.

“Our priority is to protect our volunteers and residents – if we don’t have volunteers, we don’t have a service.”

“We’ve had to drop hot teas and coffees off the menu, but we give people a tea bag so they can make a boil water when they get to where they are going.

“Winter will be colder and we hope we can still be here to support most vulnerable people who are living on the edge.”

Read about how to cope psychologically through the coronavirus pandemic: Dr Desirée Kozlowski: Tiny pleasures can help us through this stressful time

Anglican Church provides emergency food

The Lismore Food Pantry closed earlier this week, but the Anglican Church stepped up and is providing food relief from the Anglican Church on Zadoc Street, opposite Harvey Norman from 10-11am, Mondays to Fridays.

Reverend Alan Shaw said the church will continue to provide the emergency relief of ready made food packages “while we can still sustain it”.

“We have limited resources and we don’t get assistance from anywhere,” Rev Shaw said. “It will be until we either run out of food or the government brings in more changes and we are told we can’t do it anymore.

“We are also observe social distancing and hygiene measures in handling packaging and distributing food.”