GOING through food waste bins to find edible veggies for your kids. You wouldn’t think this really happens in Australia today, but that’s exactly what Luke had to do.
Luke and his wife have five children, one of whom needs full-time care because of her disability. After working in a high-pressure fly-in fly-out job for eight years, Luke gave it up to become a full-time carer for his daughter. Soon after, the family’s finances plummeted. The bills started piling up and making ends meet became impossible.
Luke tried everything. He planted vegetables – but only spinach and eggplant would grow. He sold off everything his family could do without. He budgeted down to the very last cent. He even called around, asking if anyone nearby could help him with some bread – just so he could make his kids some sandwiches.
Pretty much everyone said: “We can’t help you.”
One day, his daughter innocently asked him: “Dad, are we poor?”
Luke, growing increasingly desperate to feed his family, started looking for edible veggies in the food-waste bin of animal farms nearby. He even thought about hunting rabbits for meat.
As he recounts now: “I was a wreck. I just thought, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ ”
Luke didn’t want to come to the Salvos as he didn’t want to ask for help. He had always worked hard and been able to provide for his family but when things reached breaking point, Luke called the Salvos.
And we were able to help him, all because of the kindness of donors like you.
“I’m really glad I made that call to the Salvos. I didn’t know what the answer would be. I just said, ‘I don’t know what to do, I just need help.’” And it was given.
You can make a difference to people like Luke and his family today. With your generous donation we can continue helping others right now and into the future. Donate Now.
Story Source: The Salvation Army
Ryan Fritz
Ryan Fritz started The Advocate in 2014 to provide not-for-profits and charities another media platform to tell their worthwhile hard news stories and opinion pieces effortlessly. In 2020, Ryan formed a team of volunteer journalists to help spread even more high-quality stories from the third sector. He also has over 10 years experience as a media and communications professional for not-for-profits and charities and currently works at Redkite, a childhood cancer charity.
