On Tuesday morning, Launceston mother Kirsten Ritchie read an internet post about Slim, a Launceston man who has been homeless for 25 years.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
By 7pm that same day, Miss Ritchie had established Launceston Feeding the Homeless – a campaign seeking to provide food for Launceston’s homeless community every day of the year – and ventured down to the Royal Park barbecue area to begin the program’s first night.
There she was met by a handful of likeminded Launcestonians, who had responded to the call for donations of food and water.
“I read Slim's story on the Humans of Launceston Facebook page and I was really touched by his story,” Miss Ritchie said.
“I felt like there are lots of things out there in the community to help these people but there's still probably a lot more that can be done, and I feel as a whole community if we can all work together we can make a bigger difference.”
While the campaign has already garnered nearly 900 likes on Facebook, Miss Ritchie said she expected it would take some time for the program to fully take shape.
“There's no real figures about how many people are homeless here in Launceston - how many families, how many children?
“I’ve got no idea, so by doing this I'm hoping we'll be able to get some ideas and communicate with the homeless so we can get an understanding of what we can do to help.
“If we had every family do one or two dropoffs a year it's going to feed them.”