Purchase of Portable Cool Room

 ww.stmerkorious.org

St Merkorious Charity applied to the Tucker Foundation to buy a portable cool room to be placed in areas that we often frequent for our clients that are either far away from our headquarters (Mt Druitt and Blacktown) or have in high density (Parramatta) so that we can increase our capacity to deliver our Food Relief Service to struggling families and decrease the workload on our volunteers, staff and delivery drivers who have stepped up to the increased workload that has appeared after the COVID recession hit.

Having purchased a portable cool room, we can now deliver more food to the homeless and poor throughout Sydney, especially to our community meals and community handout depots such as Mt Druitt and Parramatta Park. In particular for youth, we have continued providing food support for UWS and students in need because of the COVID lockdowns. We have to note that even though we successfully received a grant to trial a Breakfast Club in Burwood LGA, lockdowns have prevented
our face-to-face food provision programs, and our Breakfast Club at Bass Hill High School has also paused. However, everyone in the project is keen to continue when the lockdown ends, and are excited about the increased food capacity given by the cool room.

There were some complications during the purchasing process, as we applied for the Tucker Grant before the COVID-19 Pandemic hit. Our request for a custom cool room was met with increased prices because the price of steel had risen up, alongside the fact that the original source of our quote came from inter-state locations such as Victoria, which complicated sourcing and delivery during the uncertain and frequently changing lockdown laws and restrictions. With the price having gone up, St Merkorious strived to raise money, and finally purchased the cool room. Despite lockdown and potential further delays, the cool room successfully arrived at our warehouse. With Tucker Grant’s Cool Room, we can now deliver an extra 120 family sized meals per week, alongside fresh veggie hampers to the starving and hungry around Sydney, which is especially appreciated during this second lockdown.