The above extract is taken from a special appeal letter, painstakingly typed out, one-by-one - 6,000 times - and mailed to people across suburban Melbourne by our founders, the Daughters of Charity. The Daughters were responding to a desperate need before them. Sending the letter, they hoped they could raise enough money to open a soup kitchen on Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, to feed people who were destitute and homeless, living in the slums, and on the streets, of inner-city Melbourne.

Thankfully, their efforts were successful. That soup kitchen – opened on May 30, 1960, served lunch to 94 people on its first day. Within a year, St Mary’s House of Welcome – as it had become known – was feeding 250 people a sit-down meal in its dining room, every day.

St Mary’s House of Welcome has seen 20 per cent increase in demand for our services over the past 12 months. Every day, as temperatures start to plummet, there are new faces in our dining room, new people desperate for help. More and more regularly, we are running out of sleeping swags, warm coats, socks and other vital resources to help keep people warm.

With the growing need and ever-increasing strain on our resources, we rely on our amazing community of supporters now, more than ever before. People, like you.