By Violet Li
It was a normal working day getting up at 6am for charity Find a Penny Foundation director Beata “BB” Stednik.
She soon met young participants from a NDIS program and seven aged care residents at the Hampton Park Junior Football Club oval who volunteered to prepare and repackage fresh produce every Tuesday.
A day quickly passed by without her even noticing.
Towards the end of the day, BB would bring boxes and boxes of food home, cook in her own kitchen, and get everything ready for the upcoming street programs in the week, where the charity handed out cooked meals to people in need.
For BB, every day was another day of waking up early, collecting from food banks, packing meals, cooking, and distributing food.
It has been the 15th year she dived adamantly into the cause. She did not show any sign in stopping.
It is hard to imagine this powerful woman had the energy to pick up the strenuous physical work right after running an annual free community barbecue for thousands of people across Dandenong, Casey, and Cardinia at at the Hampton Park Junior Football Club oval on Sunday 17 December.
The workload was so gigantic that BB and her husband William, alongside more than 300 volunteers, served mashed potato, halal chicken kebabs, salads, and other food nonstop.
BB said her mission was to make sure everyone had food for Christmas.
That was why she did not advertise the barbecue as just for ‘the disadvantaged’. She wanted everyone who had a need to come and participate in.
“Our aim is to mingle everyone together and to bring old people that are lonely, low income, refugees, to come together, sit down on the grass to sing music in a friendly environment,” she said.
“And that’s what we achieved.
“I was extremely happy with the amount of people that turned up.”
In addition to food, the venue offered free activities for children.
“It was nice to see kids doing activities and the parents not being stressed that they have to pay for it,” BB said.
“It was just simple, like painting butterflies. But kids love it.”
BB was surprised and moved that many people came in and did donations, which was beyond her expectation.
“We had free coffee, and people just said they were happy to pay the five dollars,” she said.
“They know the money they donate will be for the community.”
Despite it being a day teeming with cheerful atmosphere, BB could not help but notice that the community was going through a difficult time given the cost of living.
She said the turnout was way bigger than previous years with more than 3000 people showing up.
“I was so busy running and checking stuff. At one point when a photographer took the photo for me and my husband, I finally got to pause and look around, and I said wow, that’s a lot of people,” she said.
“The difficult thing is that if there is only one income for a family, they could hardly make ends meet with rent.
“We had about three or four families that had to sell the house and moved to the country just to have a roof over their heads.”
BB recalled meeting single parents who skipped meals to get food for the kids.
“I had one mother coming with three kids, and she said ‘if it wasn’t for you, I would have no food for my kids for the week’. She’s got $5 left in her wallet,” she said.
“We just wish that no one goes hungry to bed.
“I believe it’s human rights that everyone can afford a loaf of bread. But that is so far from the truth.”
Keeping the charity going has never been an easy job when the source of income relies solely on donation and grants.
But BB was grateful that it was much better this year with the grant from Casey Council.
“We received the grant for the event that helped us to have the proper music stage,” she said.
“And we have to hire refrigerated trucks and freezer trucks to keep our veggies and fruits fresh till Sunday.”
Though the free community barbecue shined a great deal of spotlight on her, BB did not have any time to dwell on it.
“I hardly got time for myself. My husband takes my phone and computer away because if I’m not doing physical work, I will do some paper work, like applying for grants,” she admitted.
Over the years, BB has put on different programs that cater to the need of the community.
“We saw that there’s a need for aged care residents because they’re locked up in the facility, and they’ve got nothing to do,” she said.
“We bring them to us. You can see the changes in their lives. They’re happier. They love coming. They feel that they are still needed.
“We also create activities for young participants from NDIS. They are so focused. They know what they are doing here.”
One thing that kept BB awake at night was that the small kitchen at the football club could not fit all the volunteers and food.
She had to bring the food from the club to her house and prepare there.
“Our primary goal is to have a commercial kitchen where we could do all that stuff from one place as opposed to one place preparing and one place taking to cook and bringing it back,” she said.
“It’s just tiring.
“I’ve been doing that for the last 15 years, so it’s really draining on me.”
A local business has intended to lease its warehouse for the charity, while there is still a gap of $600,000 for equipment installation that the charity is seeking to raise.
Find a Penny Foundation is also aiming to create a life skill program for NDIS participants.
