By Rachel Curry
Teachers at St Gerard’s Catholic Primary School in Westminster recently celebrated their mercy heritage by putting faith into action, cooking 140 meals for poor, disadvantaged and homeless people in the Perth CBD.
The staff tended to slow cookers full of chicken and vegetable casseroles and ovens baking chocolate and blueberry muffins for a number of hours, before serving them in Wellington Square and at the Street Doctor Hub on the corner of Pier and Wellington Streets on 31 May.
The initiative was in partnership with Mercedes College, whose students regularly prepare meals for poor, disadvantaged and homeless people as part of their Street Soccer Ministry.
St Gerard’s Catholic Primary School teacher Yolanda Lombardo, who was one of the co-ordinators, said the staff were on a journey to follow in the footsteps of the Sisters of Mercy and to put into practice the school’s motto: Truth, Love and Mercy.
The motto is based on Sisters of Mercy principles and the community strives to live by these ideals and be living witnesses to Christ.
“It was something that came up and considering that we are following the same principles (as Mercedes), we wanted to do our bit,” she said.
“We did this on one particular day to see how Mercedes ran it and how they had it all organised. A few of us teachers got involved in organising it and all the teachers were involved in preparing the food on the day.
“It was very rewarding, very humbling. It was a really good experience.”
Mrs Lombardo said St Gerard’s Catholic Primary School had participated in a number of initiatives with Mercedes College, such as preparing shoeboxes full of goodies for needy families in Malaysia.
Although St Gerard’s was a very multicultural school in a low socio-economic area, she said it was important for the students to recognise that there would always be people out there who needed their compassion.
Participating in the Street Soccer Ministry was a perfect way to illustrate this, she said.
“I think it renewed our vision in terms of what we’re trying to do as a school,” she said.
“We told the children about it, that we were doing it as a staff and why we were doing it as a staff. We want to show compassion and walk the walk, not just talk the talk.”
Mrs Lombardo added the staff were looking at ways they could continue to be involved with the Street Soccer Ministry in the future.