_Community Stories: Samantha Moodie and the Breakfast Club

Please tell us a little about how you have gone above and beyond to serve your local community.

After attending a corporate volunteering day at the Brotherhood of St Laurence through work, I got chatting to the coordinator about other volunteering opportunities. Shortly after, I started volunteering at the BSL Breakfast Club program, with my colleague, Jazmyn. The program, which has been operating since 2002, provides free, nutritious breakfasts to children from the neighbourhood who might otherwise go without. There are usually around 40 children registered each year, ranging from age five to 16, with a regular attendance of around 25 children each day. Breakfast Club opens at 7.30am, the kids are off to school between 8.30 and 9am, and then we clean up. I originally started with one day a week, but soon increased to both Mondays and Fridays, and have been doing this for nearly four years.

Why is volunteering important to you?

It’s important to me because I can see we are making a difference. And in this case, that is the difference between children going to school hungry and unfocused, or fed and happy. But regardless of the volunteering role and outcome, when everyone is so busy it is easy to get wrapped up in your own life. I think dedicating time to someone or something that doesn’t directly benefit you personally is really important. Not only to keep you grounded and grateful, but to keep you connected to every aspect of the community you are a part of.

What did you learn from the experience?

I am still learning. Embedding myself into a new community means I am constantly learning about the people, their lives, their culture and other ways we can help, opportunities we can provide so the kids can have fun, learn and grow. Plus, I am now an expert toasted sandwich chef.

Did your volunteering help to connect you with others and if so how?

For me, volunteering was a way for me to feel connected to the new, big city I had just moved to. I am from a tiny city in New Zealand (I say city lightly… population of 130,000), where everyone knows each other, and you always feel that sense of “small town” community. When I moved to Melbourne, which has a population the size of my entire country, I really missed that sense of tight-knit community and felt out of place. Volunteering and embedding myself in this little community in Fitzroy helped to make me feel connected, not only to the kids, parents, BSL staff and other volunteers, but to Melbourne as well.

It has also helped me to connect with colleagues. A couple of years ago Jaz, Kerrie Judge and I organised a Christmas present drive through Knight Frank. Anyone interested in buying a present for one of the kids was given an individual child to purchase for, and provided with their name, age and gender. The response was overwhelming, we ran out of kids to buy for as everyone was so keen to get involved, and it gave me a chance to connect with colleagues from other offices around the state that I had never interacted with before.

Do you think your volunteering has had an effect on your career and if so how?

Only positively. Knight Frank has always been amazingly supportive of my volunteering, not only with me starting work later on Mondays and Fridays, but with holding corporate volunteering days, donation drives, and Christmas gift appeals for the Brotherhood of St Laurence.

What advice would you give to someone who is thinking of volunteering?

Do it. Don’t wait for volunteering opportunities to fall into your lap, go and find one that you’re passionate about. And don’t be put off when it seems hard or inconvenient. When I first started, we were asked to commit to a minimum of six months, as the kids get attached and so this gives them a chance to form bonds with the volunteers and vice versa. However, committing one day a week for six months seemed daunting, even for someone with zero responsibilities. But we stuck with it, and our perspective changed once we got to know the kids, parents, and other volunteers. Now I would go every single morning if they needed me. The sense of happiness and gratitude you get from knowing you are actually making a difference to someone’s life is worth giving up an hour’s sleep any day of the week.

Do you have any future volunteering plans?

As soon as it is safe to be back at Breakfast Club, I’ll be there.