Sydney, Australia
Demand for emergency food relief among Sydney’s poor and homeless at services operated by the Rev Bill Crews Foundation has risen 149 per cent since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, according to the foundation.
The “unprecedented demand” has equated to 1.1 million meals being distributed during the crisis, despite people receiving government support, a statement issued on 2nd February said.
Rev Bill Crews. PICTURE: Ann-Marie Calilhanna/Courtesy of the Rev Bill Crews Foundation.
As well, since the onset of the pandemic 23,325 food parcels, containing basic items such as pasta, bread, tinned fish and long-life milk – valued at almost $A700,000 – have been given to needy families. “That represents a 504 per cent rise in the number of food parcels compared to pre-pandemic levels,” the statement says.
Rev Bill Crews, who has been feeding the needy from his base in the inner western Sydney suburb of Ashfield for 35 years, says demand has been “huge” since the pandemic hit, either because other providers closed their doors, or from new clients seeking help.
“There’s the increase in the numbers coming to us, but also some of the places closed down over COVID so people couldn’t get the help they used to get,” Crews told Sight.
He said that before the pandemic, the foundation would traditionally cater to rough sleepers and people struggling on the government’s NewStart welfare payment, but that had changed and there had been a large increase in the number of people seeking help who had lost their jobs, as well as what he called “a growing underclass of working poor”.
“What really shook us, was, at the beginning of the pandemic, when all the students lost all their jobs and didn’t get any money from the government, we literally were feeding people three times a day in blocks of units because they had no income,” Crews said.
“We help any [person] who’s hungry. We don’t ask questions; we don’t do anything like that.”
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As well as the increased number of meals, the foundation had opened two new free restaurants, in Campbelltown and Liverpool in Sydney’s south-west, bought another food distribution van and added another eight meal distribution areas to the fleet’s existing three locations, and provided more than 23,300 food hampers to hungry families.
As well as Ashfield and the south-west, the foundation also has a presence in inner-city Redfern, Bidwell and Lakemba, where a high migrant population lives.
Crews continues to plan ahead, saying with demand for their services so high, yet another van is a priority, at a price tag of around $A100,000. He seems unfazed by the huge cost, however, and is convinced the van will become a reality.
“It’s a constant struggle to keep things going,” Crews said.
The foundation’s ability to remain open during the pandemic has been made possible mainly by the continued support of its 2000 volunteers, and its donors, including a pensioner who this week donated $A10,000 inheritance she had received.
Crews suggested “the lie that some people are better than others” is behind societal attitudes that prevent people from sharing, being generous and showing compassion to the less fortunate.
“Jesus told the rich young man to give up all he had and he couldn’t do it,” Crews said.
“We are defined by what we own and often that drags us down so the less people have, the more they give of themselves – it’s just a truth. Society doesn’t like that because they like people to be nice and middle class and have houses and possessions, but it ultimately corrupts you. “[But] we’re all in this together. We’re all the same. Everyone’s life is messy.”
To donate, head to https://www.billcrews.org
