Sustenance in sole food

The South Ballajura Primary School Year 4 student has been collecting socks and packets of pasta for the past few months following a conversation with his mum about what he could do to help Perth’s most needy.

Mrs Quartermaine said she was talking to her son about where clothes she had collected were going when she donated them to the Good Samaritans when he decided he wanted to do more.

‘I explained the process and he said ‘well I want to help people, so what can I do’,’ she said.

‘I told him there were lots of different charities he could help and he said ‘I don’t want to give people money because they could just spend it, but I want to help someone’.’

Mrs Quartermaine said a phone call to volunteer-run charity Manna Inc showed there was a great need for pasta and socks, so her son set about organising a sock and pasta drive.

‘When I was chatting to Manna Inc they said they fed up to 240 people a night, six nights a week, and on three of those nights they cooked pasta,’ she said.

‘The other thing they needed, especially during winter months, were socks, so he just started asking everybody.

‘We are part of the WA Sled Dogs Sports Association and he asked them if they would help, so they donated. He is also part of the Morley Boys Brigade, and they also donated.

‘His school donated, his birthday party even had a ‘paying it forward’ theme with guests also donating socks and pasta to the cause; it’s been a huge effort.’

Lachlan said he was looking forward to seeing his sock and pasta drive go full circle when he meets some homeless people later this week.

‘I am excited because I have seen lots of homeless people in the city and they have less than us and I want to try to help them and do it every year,’ he said.

Mrs Quartermaine said if this year’s drive was anything to go by, her son would reach next year’s goal of 150kg of pasta and 150 pairs of socks.

To donate to Manna Inc visit mannainc.com.au.