{"id":7982,"date":"2021-09-16T00:27:56","date_gmt":"2021-09-16T00:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/serviam\/?post_type=article&p=7982"},"modified":"2021-09-16T22:37:35","modified_gmt":"2021-09-16T22:37:35","slug":"living-the-college-ethos-of-serviam","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/serviam\/article\/living-the-college-ethos-of-serviam\/","title":{"rendered":"Living the College ethos of Serviam"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thank you to The Catholic Weekly<\/a> 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Parish walks the walk<\/h4>\n

By Debbie Cramsie – The Catholic Weekly – September 9, 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n

Photo credit: Alphonsus Fok <\/em><\/p>\n

The community at St Ursula\u2019s College at Kingsgrove take their motto \u2013 I Will Serve \u2013 very seriously.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s not just about the food, it\u2019s an opportunity for the lonely and isolated to chat with someone who cares.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 \u2018Love your neighbour as yourself\u2019 as well as to \u2018be a neighbour to those around you\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognise that community is essential in supporting people during difficult times,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople access our service for a number of reasons, not all are hungry \u2013 many are lonely, isolated and simply longing for a friendly conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cProviding this service quite simply is a way of living the college ethos of Serviam which translates to \u2018I Will Serve\u2019. 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

President of Vinnies Kingsgrove Conference Bernard Deady said the One Meal service was invaluable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese include families under severe financial, accommodation and psychological stress; single mums with young babies and homeless people.<\/p>\n

“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 \u2018their angels\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Read The Catholic Weekly’s article on One Meal Kingsgrove…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","class_list":["post-7982","article","type-article","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/serviam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/7982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/serviam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/serviam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/serviam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/serviam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}