Coffee Shop Goss Banora Point > Kirra Beach - October 2014 | Page 3

>>>REALLOCALS>>>
John Lees - You Have
a Friend
I have lived in the
Tweed Coolangatta
district for eleven
years and have run
my own charity called
“You Have A Friend” for six
and a half years.
Our policy is to take food to people on the
streets or where ever they are, rather than
force them to come to us. We look after
the bottom layer of human society with
food and clothing, thats our policy.
We do, at the present moment, deliver
over 320 meals on the streets to homeless,
marginalised people every week. We
have over seventy volunteers who make
all of this possible. We also look after
seven caravan parks where there are
people really struggling. We look after
about 70 single mothers and children
who desperately need support by way
of groceries and vegetables, which we
supply.
Tracey:
Let’s go back to the start John to when
you first came across homeless people
and decided to begin helping?
John:
I was at Tallebubgera Creek, that’s how it
started, I met a few homeless guys while I
was sitting at the barbecue, by myself. We
became friends and I started to bring them
food, on a regular basis, and eventually
they decided they would tell me where
other people were, and it lead from there.
So I joined another organisation for a while,
then decided that it would be better for
me to start my own organisation.
With running my own charity, it could be
independent, run and support the people
the way we wanted without having
restrictions that are often put on us by the
bigger bodies

We don’t take any government funding.
and we are one hundred percent not for
profit. Nobody is paid in our charity.
Tracey:
So have many vans do you have on the
road that enables you to service the
homeless?
John:
We have four vans which we take out, and
they are all pretty well sponsored to us, or
we raise the money and have bough the
vans ourselves. We have a number of
school kids who work with us, from years
Eleven and Twelve, they come out on the
streets at night with us on Mondays and
Tuesdays. We’ve also got seven schools
who help and work with us, to collect
tinned food. Tinned food is very important
to us as we take the tinned food to the
homeless mothers, the people in the
caravan parks, and also the guys on the
streets, as it lasts longer than fresh food, so
that’s a very important side of our charity.
Tracey:
So what actual items do you provide to
the homeless?
John:
We do the basics, toothpaste, clothing and
food. We also provide some wonderful
sleeping bags called swags which are
made by prisoners in Grafton. Everything
we hand out on the streets are free. We
are working six days a week, I pick up
day old fruit and vegetables from Coles
Tweed Central, and we distribute that
immediately to the streets, to mothers, and
some of the fruit and vegetables are very
good, it’s only a day old, but they don’t sell
it in the shops, so that’s very good for our
cause, and really helps.
Tracey
John are the homeless predominately
alcoholics as most people presume?
continued page 5

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