Dorcas St meal brings community together in South Melbourne

At around 6.30pm on a wintry Thursday a few dozen people are tucking into a three-course meal at the Uniting Church Hall in Dorcas St, South Melbourne.

Over the speakers Kasey Chambers is competing with the scraping of chairs and clacking of cutlery and the occasional burble of conversation and laughter.

On people’s plates, serves of lamb ribs, lamb rack, pork, chicken, fish, pasta and “every vegetable you can imagine” are laid out.

Reverend Alex Sangster, a key instigator of the weekly community meal, points out that people choose their food.

“It’s not just plonked on a plate,” she says.

The meals are open to everyone and aimed at addressing social isolation as well as food insecurity with a “dignified” and “joyful” approach, she says.

A team of upbeat volunteers are dishing up, whisking around the kitchen and taking turns to sit and eat at the shared tables or walk around collecting dishes.

Some have been working since early afternoon to prepare the impressive spread.

Tonight the rain has kept patron numbers down – there are usually around 80, and up to 120 – but those who have come are enjoying it.

At one table a youngish man is complaining he ate too much soup and bread and can’t do the main course justice.

“This is my first time here,” he said.

“The meal is exceptional.”

Immanuel, or “Samuel”, who lives a few doors away, has been coming for two years and says the hall is usually full.

“Sometimes they have to pull out a few more chairs,” he says.

“The quality of the food is very good, and you can have as much as you want. Because of costs going up – food items and utility bills – this seems to be something that’s a help to everyone.”

Eighty-two-year-old Brian also highly recommends the meal, for both quality and company.

“I’m hopeless at cooking and it’s good to mix with company,” he says.

“The staff and volunteers are lovely, hard workers, and it’s always nice and clean and tidy.”

The only thing that could improve the experience for Brian is social dancing.

As it turns out, that is not out of the question.

Started in 2023 by Reverend Alex, her former colleague Reverend John Tansey, and cook and youth worker Mark Henderson, the project, thanks to the backing of the St Kilda South Port Uniting Church and a range of charities, has already seen a commercial kitchen cobbled together, a shower installed for those who need it and an emergency pantry opened for all comers.

Organisations like Port Phillip Community Group, Share the Food, Pinchapoo and It’s the Little Things Community have also enabled it to serve up thousands of highly appreciated meals and provide food and toiletry essentials for those who need them.

The organisers are now “looking at how we meet the community’s needs going forward,” Mark says, and social dancing “may well happen”.

There has been a live singer at the meal recently and a regular live band in the past, he points out.

While the focus for some meal attendees may be social, others find themselves in desperate circumstances, Reverend Alex says.

“She gets her kids to school every day in their uniforms.”

“She showed me a photo and said, ‘you’d never know, would you?’”

Another man, who “comes and goes” from the weekly event is the “unbelievably tough” single parent of four young kids who is “trying to keep it all together”.

Part of the idea of the weekly event is to keep track of people’s lives and connect them with services where possible, Reverend Alex says.

There is also “transformation” that happens there.

For example, a man in his late thirties with “a jail history” and “a big, complicated life” who has got involved as a volunteer.

“He’s here at nine o’clock every Wednesday and meets Mark to go and get all the food.

“And he’s thinking about trying out for youth work … to work with young lads to stop them from taking the path that he did.”

According to Reverend Alex, the need for initiatives such as this has increased as a result of the federal government defunding emergency relief and food programs to instead provide individual packages to those eligible for aged care and other support.

“There’s this idea that individual choice takes priority and power over community and people working together to care for each other, so there’s a lot of uncertainty in the sector at the moment,” she says.

For volunteer Helen Matthews there was no uncertainty about getting on board a couple of weeks after the dinners started.

An old friend of Reverend Alex’s, who had become increasingly aware of “[her] privileged position”, Helen answered a Facebook call for “people who might want to come and chop vegetables and peel potatoes and wash dishes”.

“I was working casually, so I could make time,” the library technician says.

Before long she had fallen into the role of at-home dessert maker as the result of feedback from the clientele that the fruit salad and ice cream afters were “a bit lacking”.

Among the desserts Helen has on rotation are apple crumble, apple and pear cake, a “custardy lime bar slice” and a flourless coconut and almond cake.

She makes them at home the night before the dinner, using her own ingredients.

Long-term regular diner Felix clearly appreciates the variety on offer.

“I enjoy the meal here and my friend does too,” he says, noting he always arrives on time.

“Some places you go it’s a bit rough but this one’s a very nice place, it’s always friendly and I never feel disappointed.

“There’s always enough food and you can even take some home.

“The efforts they go to for the hungry people!”

The community meals are held every Thursday at 6pm at the Dorcas St Uniting Church throughout the year except January. •