Cold weather, homelessness and a cost of living crisis are contributing to a surge in demand for a free hot meals program in Orange.
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Uniting Church member Bev Rankin said the hot meals outreach program started three years ago in response to the COVID lockdown and demand has remained strong ever since.
"I remember the first night we had four customers," Mrs Rankin said.
However, the volunteers are now serving from 120 to 150 takeaway meals between 5pm and 6pm each Saturday.
"You don't always know why the numbers increase or decrease but I don't think we've been below 100 for quite a while now," Mrs Rankin said.
"In January in the warmer months and the holiday months we had a little bit less custom.
"Now that the cold weather has come in and costs are increasing and all the rest of it, our clientele have grown a bit."
Mrs Rankin said the hot meals outreach started in May of 2020 after other community-run meal programs had to shut down.
"All those meals that people who were homeless or just vulnerable or lonely had been able to access, all of those were closed down and their volunteers weren't able to work because they were in a vulnerable category," Mrs Rankin said.
"We just thought there's a need there for people to access a warm nutritional meal and by doing it as takeaway that was how we could do it in a COVID safe manner.
"It grew fairly rapidly in that first year and we are regularly giving out out between 120 and 150 meals on a Saturday night."
Mrs Rankin said the type of hot meals that are served depends on who is doing the cooking.
"You might get a meal that's rissoles with a bit of gravy and veg and mash, or you might get lasagne or it could be a chicken and rice and vegie dish, or it could be curried sausages, or it could be a spaghetti bol or a pasta bake," she said.
"It's basically a fairly basic meal but it's warm and it's nutritious and you get a meal for however many people are in your household.
"If you come and say there's five people in my household then you will get five meals."
She said some of the volunteers also cook muffins, patty cakes, slices or biscuits so there's something "a little bit tasty" with each meal. Kinross Wolaroi School students also provide some cooked food as well.
"If people want to volunteer we're always looking for cooks," Mrs Rankin said.
A new community centre also opened at the church in May, this time in the church itself.
Mrs Rankin said the church first opened a community centre after a rest centre underneath Big W closed several years ago.
"It was freezing cold and we just said to people at that stage they could come up to the Fusion Centre which was on the Uniting Church property in the old kinder hall and so we ran that pretty much until 2020," Mrs Rankin said.
"Then COVID came along and it closed down for that reason and we've only been able to start it just now because of the renovations that were happening on site as well as the implications of COVID."
Mrs Rankin said the drop-in community centre will open from 10am to 2pm Mondays and Thursdays.
"It's a warm safe space where people can drop in, sit down, have a chat, there will be light refreshments available like tea, coffee, toasted sandwiches and that sort of thing," she said.
The hot meals can be accessed in the hall behind the Orange Uniting Church on Saturdays between 5pm and 6pm.
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