Everyday Saviours / Miracle Workers

by Michelle Singer

Source: Wentworth Courier, Wednesday, 22 December 2004

Hot meals and a familiar face work miracles at Christmas.

In 1993 former restaurateur and businessman Jeff Gambin spent Christmas giving dinner to 30 homeless people from the back of his car in Martin Place.

He bought gifts for each person and put a "few bucks in an envelope".

Fast forward 11 years and nothing has changed except this year he expects to feed 1,500 people at the annual Just Enough Faith (JEF) Christmas party.

Fortunately Mr Gambin hasn't had to buy all the presents himself.

At this time of year, Mr Gambin's and his wife Alina's 365-day-a-year commitment to provide gourmet hot and cold meals to up to 500 people becomes even more important.

"When I started, it hit home how important having a loved one or a family member or someone that just cares to have around at times like Christmas," he said.

"These people have had loved ones at some stage or another and for us that do have loved ones it's a happy time, it's a celebration and if you don't have people around you it's probably the saddest time.

"This time of year we get up to 600 or 700 people coming to eat because a lot of other organisations close down during this time."

A sous chef, kitchen hand and volunteers prepare nine different meals every day at the Rozelle base before loading the two JEF vans and travelling every night to the corner of St Marys Road and Yurong Parkway in the city to feed the homeless.

Despite the couple's dedication and growth in corporate support there isn't a lot of back slapping or high fiving around the JEF headquarters, instead there's more of an undeniable sense of alarm and sadness.

"The need for services grows every year and it just gets more frightening," Mrs Gambin said.

"Most people expect the homeless to be older men, or alcoholics, who sleep on park benches. But we are seeing people between 17 and 35 who have for whatever reason fallen through the cracks in society and will be there an awful long time."

Christmas is also the busiest time of the year for Bondi's Chapel By the Sea and Norman Andrews House, which run an annual Christmas Appeal and party for the homeless and families in crisis.

Community Minister Frances Wootton commended the Waverley community for this year's generous support in the lead up to Christmas, with a lot of presents for children and food for hampers being donated.

"With the gentrification of this area people are paying huge rents and we have a lot of single families struggling to make ends meet at Christmas," she said.

And it seems there are no religious boundaries when it comes to the homeless as the Uniting Church, St Vincent De Paul's and the Jewish Emanuel School in Randwick all provide resources.
"We've seen an influx in not only homeless people but people with a mental illness who need support. All of our organisations are struggling because of the number of people with a mental illness who struggle to manage their money at any time let alone Christmas," Ms Wooten said.

Mission Australia's NSW office has also found its range of 250 accommodation beds, for males, females and families, are full and all facilities were stretched to capacity as they always are at Christmas.

Operations manager for adult accommodation services Kerry Edgecombe said the situation was a "constant problem" and as soon as people moved through the system there was someone else ready to take their place.

"Everyone else is doing something with family and we work with people who don't have those links and find it very difficult," she said.

Ray White Double Bay has donated $5000 to Just Enough Faith this Christmas. To donate, phone 9818 8988. Donations to Mission Australia can be made by phoning 1800 88 88 68.

A station wagon filled with non-perishable food was delivered by Wentworth MP Malcolm Turnbull to Norman Andrews House last Friday. Many kind Eastern Suburbs residents donated to the appeal. Norman Andrews House accpets donations of food, money and men's toiletries, 95 Roscoe Street, Bondi Beach. Phone 9130 3445 or 9130 5749.

Photo: Sam Mooy

Jeff Gambin: Feeding the homeless

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