They’re often cold, tired and hungry.
It’s been this way for 17 years since the Margaret Court Community Outreach (MCCO) service was first established in Perth and demand is now up by 30 per cent on 2015.
To address the growing need in Perth’s eastern suburbs, Margaret Court Community Outreach, in partnership with Hillside Church Community Outreach, has opened a third distribution centre in Forrestfield.
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Many of the people who need the service don’t fit the typical profile of a struggling family or individual. They might be temporarily out of work, not managing to make ends meet, or recently arrived refugees yet to find their footing.
There are families, young people and the elderly, all greeted by the team of volunteers who provide much-needed moral support.
The Forrestfield MCCO centre expects to feed about 100 families in its first week of operation, with this number growing significantly once word of the services spreads throughout the community.
The centre will initially open twice a week from 10am to 1.30pm, but will move to a seven-day operation if required to meet the community’s needs.
Across the network of MCCO centres a typical week sees the service assist 550 families, providing enough perishable and non-perishable food for 5000 meals – equating to some 25,000 tonnes of produce. In a year the centres distribute $1.3 million of food, enough for 260,000 meals.