Everyday Heroes

by John Parrish

Source: Reader's Digest Vol 157 No. 941 September 2000

World of Warmth

It was a winter night in July 1994, and Jeff Gambin, a Sydney restaurateur and nightclub owner, was having problems with his business partners. To clear his head, the 46-year-old went out into the cold night for a walk.

Gambin sat on a bench in Martin Place, a pedestrian mall in the city centre. A homeless man with a greying beard and stiff, arthritic limbs shuffled over. "I can see you're new here," he said.

The man pulled out a threadbare blanket from a nylon bag and handed it to Gambin. "You'd better use this tonight," he said. "It's cold."

"What about you?" Gambin protested.

"I'm used to the cold," the man replied, walking away.

Gambin felt humbled. This man gave me what was probably his most valuable possession without a second thought, he realised. His own problems did not seem important any more.

The next day Gambin returned to Martin Place to thank the homeless man. He learned the man was once a farmer, but had lost his property. His name was Owen. Gambin promised Owen he'd never want for a meal or roof over his head again.

He kept his promise, putting Owen up in a hotel and later finding him a cheap bedsit. But something troubled him. What about all the other Owens? he wondered. Who's looking after them?

Photo by Gerrit Fokkema

Jeff Gambin - Serving meals to the homeless in Sydney's Martin Place

Gambin started taking food from restaurants to Martin Place every night after work. Over the next year, the number of people who relied on him for a meal swelled to several dozen, and showed no sign of abating. It soon became impractical to keep up both his charity work and other jobs. Realising his work with the homeless was far more rewarding than anything else he did, Gambin decided to sell his businesses and throw himself into helping them full-time.

Gambin now buys and prepares the food himself, spending over five hours a day making meals for 300 or more people. It costs him $1400 a week, the money coming from the sale of investment properties he bought during his days as a businessman. He also scours newspapers to find jobs and accommodation for his homeless friends. "Everyone deserves a second chance," he says. "Most of these people don't choose to be there. It's often bad luck and a broken heart that leads to the street. It could be any of us."

Last January, Gambin received a Compaq Community Stars Award, jointly sponsored by the National Trust, Sydney Opera House and Compaq. The resulting publicity led the trustee of a ten-hectare farm in Sydney's outskirts to ask Gambin if he could use it. Since then, Gambin has been working at the farm alongside the homeless, planting fruit trees and vegetables as well as building accommodation. His dream is that one day his project - called Just Enough Faith - will be self-sufficient, and that the homeless will feed the homeless.

Helping him towards that goal is his wife, Alina. Four years ago, she heard about Gambin's work and volunteered to help. Romance blossomed and the pair wed in August 1998.

Owen was the best man. "Inviting him to perform this special honour was the least I could do," says Gambin. "For most people the homeless don't exist, but Owen introduced me to a world full of warmth, compassion and friendship. Those are the important things in life."