JENNIFER Wiercx’s compassion for her fellow human beings is limitless and she urges the Highway community to spread some love by leaving their unwanted, edible food on their gates for the hungry. The elderly woman said she used to run an outreach feeding scheme for those in need in the Hillcrest area every day, reaching out to more than 100 people.
“It started off when we were being stopped and asked for food and money to buy food and soon realised how hungry people were and that they were unemployed and could not get work. They could not feed themselves or their families back home,” said Jennifer.
In 2007 her late husband, Allen Gorddon, Hillcrest’s favourite plumber, started to make sandwiches which he placed into plastic bags and handed out to the men who converged outside the Post Office in Hillcrest. “Whatever we had we put onto the sandwiches. We would make stops all around Hillcrest and give whatever we had and after about six months of this, we found we were struggling to do this on our own and could not meet the need,” said Jennifer.
The local Checkers happily contributed to the project and supplied the couple with massive amounts of bread and cakes that were still fresh and edible.
“In the beginning there were just a handful of people receiving food from us and it continued to expand and the number grew to between 100 to 150 a day. This was done on top of his full time job as a plumber,” said Jennifer. Allen semi retired in 2009 and continued his outreach projects. He then became very ill a few years later and suffered from several small strokes and was diagnosed with Alzheimers. He passed away on 30 March in 2015.
Jennifer was heartbroken when she was forced to stop the outreach as she no longer had any transport. “I kept on giving as much as I possibly could when I had the chance. I could not collect from Checkers anymore as I could not carry all the food. No one else stepped into the breach or came forward. Many were devastated when my husband died and some people even cried on the spot when I told them of his passing. He was so loved,” said Jennifer.
She appeals to Highway residents to put their left over and throw away foods, that are still fresh and edible, into carrier bags and hook these onto their fences or post boxes. “Put it anywhere that someone who is passing by can easily recognise as something they could take.”
“At the moment, I feel the responsibility but I don’t have the power myself to do this.”
“I hope to share this responsibility to anyone in the community who cares, and I firmly believe there is a tremendous amount of people out there who want to help others in need and will take this up,” said an impassioned Jennifer. “It would be such a help to those who dig in the bins for food as now it will not be mixed up with the other refuse and is available for them to take,” she added.
