Living the College ethos of Serviam
Thank you to The Catholic Weekly for highlighting the amazing work of One Meal Kingsgrove volunteers from the St Ursula’s and OLF Primary community. They truly are living with Serviam spirit by serving others in our local community.
Parish walks the walk
By Debbie Cramsie – The Catholic Weekly – September 9, 2021
Photo credit: Alphonsus Fok
The community at St Ursula’s College at Kingsgrove take their motto – I Will Serve – very seriously.
Every week they not only serve but prepare around 250 meals for the vulnerable in their local area. Answering the call for increased assistance due to COVID, the army of committed volunteers come together every week to provide for those in need of a helping hand. And it’s not just about the food, it’s an opportunity for the lonely and isolated to chat with someone who cares.
As One Meal Kingsgrove is an essential service, it has continued to operate during lockdown, running a restriction-compliant operation by students, parents, carers, teachers, staff, families and ex-students, throughout the pandemic.
Joining forces with Our Lady of Fatima Primary School, around 140 volunteers spend hours of their own time in their own kitchens making nutritious home-cooked meals which includes a piping hot dinner, rice, salad and dessert, with all ingredients purchased by the volunteers themselves.
Brainchild of the service, college Assistant Religious Education Coordinator Antoinette Nader said she was thrilled with the response to their service due only to the generosity, kindness and love shown by her school community. She said they strive to keep the one command to ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ as well as to ‘be a neighbour to those around you’.
“We recognise that community is essential in supporting people during difficult times,” she said. “People access our service for a number of reasons, not all are hungry – many are lonely, isolated and simply longing for a friendly conversation.”
“After local LGA restrictions, many of our volunteer teams have found themselves limited in their capacity, so a support crew has stepped up and we have a kerbside drop off of food.
“Providing this service quite simply is a way of living the college ethos of Serviam which translates to ‘I Will Serve’. Knowing we are helping those in the community doing it a little tough really has given us a better understanding of giving while at the same time bringing us closer together as a Catholic community.
“We are so proud of what we have achieved and as COVID-19 restrictions ease we hope to grow the service and make it a more regular occurrence as well as offering a dine-in experience to help provide connections for those lonely and isolated in our community.”
President of Vinnies Kingsgrove Conference Bernard Deady said the One Meal service was invaluable.
“The One Meal Kingsgrove service, which provides us with meals every week, offers tremendous support for families in our local community who are doing it tough,” he said.
“These include families under severe financial, accommodation and psychological stress; single mums with young babies and homeless people.
“Our clients really appreciate the thoughtfulness of those providing the service. The quality, quantity and variety of One Meal Kingsgrove food offers them great support, and are a real comfort to know people are thinking of them through their difficult time, and for them, the One Meal Kingsgrove team are ‘their angels’.”
