Elspeth Kernebone
7 May 2024
Hot breakfasts will be served an extra day a week to people experiencing homelessness in Melbourne thanks to the fundraising efforts of Melbourne Grammar students.
Ross House students raised a record amount, nearly $11,000, through a sleep-out on their campus.
The effort was inspired by their volunteer program, in which they serve hot breakfasts to people experiencing homelessness, at Anglicare Victoria’s inner city breakfast program.
Teachers say their volunteer work for the program has built empathy and encouraged them to help further, as they saw they could make a real difference in others’ lives.
Anglicare Victoria Homelessness Support team leader Jack Brookes said he had seen students develop understanding that being homeless wasn’t an individual failing and that they could help people in that situation, through volunteering at the program.
Read more: For one man, hope and a haven at last, as shelter pushes against tide of homelessness
He said understanding that anyone could experience homelessness was valuable for students, who were thinking about what they would do after high school and how to make a difference in their community.
Mr Brookes said it was striking a lot of the students wanted to come back, to volunteer further.
Melbourne Grammar School Ross House head Ali McWhirter said seeing someone else’s background through volunteering, had grown students’ ability to consider that experience in their interactions.
Mr McWhirter said fundraising also gave the students a sense of achievement, which encouraged them to do more.
He said through volunteering, students had learnt they could build helping others into their lives.
Melbourne Grammar Ross House captain Archie Stoney said hearing from Anglicare that Victoria was one of the places with the fastest growing rate of homelessness drove the fundraising.
Archie said everyone connected with the school community supported the fundraising efforts, from friends, to family.
Read more: Homes for homeless closer because of agreement
He hoped this would lead to other schools or groups picking up the cause.
Through the Melbourne Grammar fundraising, Anglicare Victoria has been able to open an extra day a week of hot breakfasts for the year.
The breakfast program supplies hot breakfasts to people sleeping rough or in crisis accommodation.
Mr Brookes said it offered community and belonging for people who came, which they struggled to find elsewhere.
For many, the workers at the breakfast are the first people they see after a night on the street.
Mr Brookes said the relationships they formed were a way to break down barriers between people experiencing homelessness and workers, as a step towards accessing services.
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