A Loganholme supermarket providing free food to locals has served over 1500 people in need in just two weeks of operation.
The permanent store, called The People’s Market, is run by Queensland-based charity Serving Our People.
Vulnerable locals can freely access essential non-perishable groceries, fresh fruit and vegetables, frozen meals and household items at the market.
Serving Our People founder Yas Matbouly said the charity had the capacity to feed thousands more.
“It’s going extremely well,” Mr Matbouly said.
“At the launch we had hundreds and hundreds of people line up to come in, and since then stuff has been getting off the shelves very fast.
“We opened the first People’s Market in the Gold Coast and we’ve seen a very large number of recipients from Logan come through.
“Especially now with the rising cost of living, we’ve seen it increase further.”
He said food scarcity was a serious issue that affects a person’s entire livelihood – including their mental health.
“If you don’t have the basic human rights of food, shelter and oxygen, then you don’t have anything,” Mr Matbouly said.
“Without these rights, you can’t think of going to the gym and you can’t think of going to play soccer with your friends, or whatever it may be.”
Serving Our People also launched its Feeding Our People initiative, which aims to deliver free food and essentials to locals through mobile food markets.
The program will be piloted in Logan, and once fully established will aim to assist more than one million people each year for five years.
“We decided that Logan is an area of need, and because we’ve had so many recipients over the years, we decided it’s time that we do something about it as soon as possible,” Mr Matbouly said.
“This is a crisis – it isn’t any different than the pandemic or than the floods – it’s a national crisis.
“There’s a lot of people that are really affected by it and we’ve got to really consider it very carefully and delicately.”
Serving Our People first opened its doors in March 2020, operating as a free delivery service for those who could not leave their homes to purchase essential items such as groceries, baby formula and medications.
Now the organisation has helped close to 80,000 people across south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales – delivering thousands of ‘bags of love’, connecting vulnerable members of the community to essential housing and health services, and delivering household furniture and appliances.
The People’s Market is located at KENG – Tudor Park Community Recreation Centre.
Local member for Rankin and federal treasurer Jim Chalmers was present at the market’s opening, said it was a “great new initiative” helping people “doing it especially tough in our area”.
“The new partnership between Serving our People and the Kingston East Neighbourhood Group will help people under cost-of-living pressure in our local community.”
Mr Matbouly said donations were always accepted and were essential to helping fund The People’s Market – whether they be non-perishable foods or money.
