Esther hopes the North Kiama Neighbourhood Centre will transform into a community hub with The Everyday Kitchen. Photo: Keeli Dyson.
A new hub in Kiama centred around socialisation and support hopes to provide a little bit of relief for those who need it, with community members urged to stop the stigma around accepting help, even if others are struggling more.
Esther Keenan has seen how cost of living has impacted those in her community, with difficulties in day-to-day finances often invisible and stopping people from engaging with others.
“We are aware that there are so many lonely people in our community and also a lot of people that are just doing it tough and not necessarily sleeping on the streets but living in lovely homes but still struggling to make ends meet,” she said.
“Tough for some people could simply look like poring over their finances and wondering how they’re going to pay next week’s rent; for others it’s where to find a dry, warm place to sleep.”
During COVID lockdowns, Esther and her husband started offering free coffee from a trailer at the lighthouse, which acted as a beacon for connection at an isolating time, with no cost to get involved.
“We would go on a Thursday night and do free coffees, free hot chocolates and sausage sandwiches,” Esther said.
“People were allowed to go for a walk and so they would come by, grab a sausage, have a bit of a chat and go home.
“We had some really good uptake with that and we still get asked, ‘When are you coming back to the lighthouse?’
“It’s just rolled into realising that the free meal is not necessarily it; people need to know that they belong to something.”
Now they’ve found a new way to support the people of Kiama while fostering that strong sense of community and combatting isolation.
The Everyday Table will be a social hub for all ages and stages which offers free coffee and a meal, not just for those in desperate need, but anyone who might benefit from the helping hand and a conversation.
Pantry staples will be offered at extremely low cost to help ease the grocery shop bill. Photo: The Everyday Table Kiama.
They are also hoping to take the sting off grocery shopping, with a pantry of staples at low cost for people to purchase from.
“Obviously it’s not going to be everything that a family needs in the pantry but if we can ease the cost and the burden on basics then it frees up a bit more money for things like medical appointments, bills, or other food that we can’t actually help with,” Esther said.
It’s not just food – by partnering with Good360 they also have goods that can help families from going without or missing out on social milestones because of the expense.
“There are some kids hygiene products that we’ve picked up in our first delivery; we’ve got LEGO and toys,” Esther said.
“We want to support families either at Christmas or even families who get invited to birthday parties and may not be able to afford to buy a present, so we want to help them so they can be part of their own group or community.”
Businesses are also invited to reach out if they want to contribute donations.
Despite so many people struggling, Esther said there was still a lot of hesitation around accepting help.
“I think our biggest challenge in the response is because we live in a community that people expect you to have lots of money, actually saying, ‘Hey, I want to take advantage of the pantry items’ could be seen as accepting a bit of a handout,” she said.
“They’re not free pantry items because we don’t want people to think that they have to be on a low income card or desperately struggling.
“It really is for everybody.”
The Everyday Table is located at North Kiama Neighbourhood Centre, which Esther said had good accessibility.
“One of the reasons why we chose this hall rather than any of the other council halls is that parking is so accessible, so we can help people to take their pantry items to the car rather than trying to lug it halfway down the road,” Esther said.
“We’re trying to make it accessible for everybody and the hope is that the community grab it and go, ‘Let’s do something together’.
“There’s space here for kids to run around and enjoy, there’s air conditioning if it ever gets too hot, there’s so much potential for this to be a place that so many people could take advantage of.”
The official launch date is expected to be announced within the next fortnight. To stay up to date or to get in touch, visit the The Everyday Table Facebook page.
