Hello my loves,

Well, our beautiful hub of free nourishment continues to blossom. I've just come from our latest Free Food Friday service and I feel like I've spent the last three hours bathing in golden love - which to be frank, I pretty much have.

As you many have gathered, I am someone who believes wholeheartedly in an abundant, benevolent, loving universe, but even my socks have been absolutely blown off by the incredible ecosystem that has been created at Hearth over the last month. Full disclosure: the idea for Free Food Fridays dropped into my heart as I was sitting in the passenger seat of our car on a Saturday morning, doing the Sydney open home circuit on what turned out to be the last weekend anyone was able to do the Sydney open home circuit. I grabbed my phone, wrote the email, sent it out, and from that one email, here's what bloomed:

A 40-strong array of incredible volunteers who are coming together each week to whip up deliciousness for anyone who needs it.
A wealth of financial support given by those who have something to spare.
So much donated food that we hardly know what to do with it: seriously, today we were able to create a free fresh veggie stand for people to take what they needed because we have so much food we can't cook it all (and here I extend my sincere thanks to Harris Farm Markets and Touched by Olivia for their ongoing donation of fresh produce).
A cavalcade of amazing human beings who are turning up each week to avail themselves of our free meals, and making every single person who has been a part of this feel so warm in their hearts that any thanks we receive almost feels inappropriate.

The best kind of veggie shopping is free veggie shopping :)

Every week we hear soul-warming stories from those who come to collect meals. Today I spoke to Mustafa, who was taking a batch of meals to give to neighbours who live in his building - not just to give them some delicious nourishment, he said, 'but also to make sure that no-one is too lonely'. Another lovely young man told me that his house-mates are gathering once a week for a shared meal, and this week's menu will be made up of our free food. And yet another beautiful gentleman came for a meal, but left two gorgeous jars of home-preserved peaches and cherries, 'because in my culture, we don't go to somebody's home without bringing something too.'

And do you know what made this incredible, self-sustaining, heart-warming ecosystem of nourishment possible? It's really quite simple. Everyone who had something to give, and who wanted to help, did what it was within their power to do. Those who had steady incomes and something to spare gave money. Those who had time to volunteer gave that. Those who had delicious food in their storerooms and fields sent us bucket-loads of nourishment. And when a community does that, when we all simply contribute what we can, the collective power of support that is unleashed is tsunami-like.

And that is what I want you to know my darlings. Whatever circumstances you may find yourself in, there are people around you who care about you. You may not even know them, but I promise you that if you are open to receiving it, their love will find a way to you. And if I've learned one thing over the last month, it's that there is an incredible amount of love and generosity in the world - you only need to glance at what's been created at Hearth in the past four weeks to see that with crystal clarity.

I'll leave you this week with a quote from an interview I did recently with the wonderful Jo from Humans of Newtown. This is one of those times when you read something you've said and you can't quite believe it was you who said it, but it was, and that's very cool, and here it is:

‘There is this whole interesting idea of charity versus community. What we see here is community coming together to share the abundance that exists within that community. It’s interesting because I think people might not feel like they can take charity or they qualify for it… but everyone at a time like this, and actually always, should be able to tap in to the resources of their community to help them when they need it. That is like the ultimate equation of abundance – there is always enough.’

Have a beautiful weekend my darlings.

Love,

Rachel xxx

PS Do you know what else happened this week? We received a whopping $1,000 cash donation from the amazing people at QE Foodstores. I nearly fell off my couch when the email came through - what a hugely generous act of support from one of our local businesses. Please support them if you're in the area, this level of generosity was completely unexpected, and will help us feed literally hundreds more people. Thank you Narinder and QE Foodstores for supporting your community in the most incredibly generous way.