
Winter Appeal
Celebrating 65 years of service
Banner image courtesy of Chris Lermanis
“Loneliness gnaws away consistently at the heart. It is one of the hardest things to suffer. So, too, is the cold of Winter...Perhaps you have seen the line of men in Nicholson Street, Fitzroy, at noon each day awaiting some food… The Daughters of Charity would like to bring them inside, out of the cold and rain, and set them down to something warm and clean and dignified… Your donation will help.”
— Excerpt, Daughters of Charity Appeal letter – July 12, 1958
Please, help ensure we are there for each and every person who needs our help
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.
For 65 years, St Mary’s House of Welcome has helped bring warmth into the lives of community members who are chronically homeless, disadvantaged and isolated. Our fundamental purpose is to provide a safe place of welcome where people are nourished, experience belonging and are supported to achieve their full potential.
How your Winter Appeal gift will help
$35 to help provide an emergency food hamper to a person sleeping rough;
$55 to help provide emergency material aid items such as warm clothing, underwear, socks;
$125 to help provide a tent and a sleeping swag to a person sleeping rough;
$250 to help fund the ‘Welcome Start’ winter breakfast program for a day;
$500 to help fund the social inclusion group activities for a month.
Your gift today will directly help some of the most vulnerable people in our community. People for whom winter will be colder and harsher than most of us could ever imagine.
Every gift $2 and over is tax deductible. Please give as generously as you can.
Thank you.