Hiya 😊
I thought I would drop you a…
line as we head into the long weekend.
How are you travelling?
I hope you are keeping warm this winter.
Here’s the latest Kindness News…
Last month we had a fantastic turnout for…
our Men’s Health Week event, we had to hunt for more chairs multiple times!
But more importantly, we got to show guys that they are valued.
We kicked off the morning with some charades to warm us up and get us laughing, then Steve gave a very enthusiastic 3D Printer demo and talk, we created Pocket Hugs to give away, and we (not me!) won Lucky Door Prizes donated by Nicki from our Kind Café Missy Moos Coffee and a very generous 3x $50 vouchers donated by our sponsor Donna Glass from Helen Munro Property.
And then we handed out goody bags to the guys- which also included a voucher donated by Kurt from Baskin Robbins.
We really enjoyed hanging out, and a number of us stayed back and chatted long after the event officially ended.
Behind the scenes we have been…
beavering away creating Foodshare.
Since starting The Kindness Catalyst, I have been asked several times where people can donate food, like long life food, but also homegrown produce and surplus event food.
You can find a great list of Emergency Food and Accommodation Services on the Townsville Community Information Centre website here…
https://www.cictownsville.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Emergency-programs-05_03_25.pdf or here https://www.cictownsville.com.au/services-and-publications/
But I haven’t seen a list of services willing to accept community donations.
So I have decided to create a Foodshare Directory on our website, outlining who accepts food donations, what donations they can use and the most useful process to donate.
We have a lot of information so far and can’t wait to put it together and share it with you.
If you know of an organisation that gives out food and would like to be included, they can complete the online registration form here… https://thekindnesscatalyst.com.au/food-share/
We will have the directory of ‘Donation Locations’ ready to lunch at our Foodshare event next 10.30-12 Thursday July 10 at our Kind Café Missy Moos Coffee. (410 Ross River Rd, Cranbrook).
We’ll launch the Foodshare page, hear from community services providers, have some fun ‘food games’, and the opportunity to share homegrown produce or seedlings and donate long life food to ADRA Community Pantry Townsville.
As usual, this is a free event thanks to the beautiful Donna Glass from Helen Munro Property.
It’s also wheelchair accessible and child friendly.
Food and drink will be available for purchase at the café.
Here’s the weblink… https://thekindnesscatalyst.com.au/events/
And the Facebook link… https://www.facebook.com/share/1XJMVpEmmb/
Speaking of our Kind Café….
Nicki started collecting donations early for the Food Pantry and the response has been awesome!
Community members and Centacare staff and service users have all been generously contributing.
We were so excited that we’ve decided to make it a permanent Community Food Pantry- we’ll also be launching this at our Foodshare event.
It will be operating as a ‘give what you can, take what you need’ Community Food Pantry.
Steve patiently put together a flat packed bookshelf to house the food.
It is a bit smaller than we expected (probably not surprising for just $20 from Kmart!)
If anyone is keen to gift us $20 for a second bookshelf, it would be much appreciated.
The Kindness Catalyst is very blessed by a beautiful supportive community…
we were recently gifted a huge box of stamps and stickers (I’m thinking Random Acts of Kindness cards) and a beautiful lady and her daughter have just offered to support our Kindness Kits (more on this later).
Beachtown Creative Artist Miss Mary has reached out to us to create Pay it Forward face painting while promoting our events!
You can check her out here… https://www.facebook.com/HELLOBCAM
Around town this month I’ve seen kind community…
coming together to buy a car for a cancer patient.
Recently a mother living in emergency accommodation reached out and asked if anyone could help brighten her daughter’s birthday by driving past Sherriff Park in their motor bike or nice car- the resulting convoy was impressive and brought a lump to my throat.
People even brought gifts!
Go Townsville!
There’s kindness happening all around us.
I hope it lifts your spirits 😊
Take care x
Fiona and Steve
