Somewhere in the billowing steam of the kitchen, former Southern Cross University Student of the Year – Theresa Mitchell – is supervising lunch. Today's menu features a range of hot and hearty meals for people who may not eat as well again for days.
Three hundred are expected on Tuesday, 400 on Wednesday, and every week more people join the hungry hundreds filing into Agape Outreach's headquarters in Tweed Heads. Others gather at various locations between Byron Bay in Northern NSW, and Runaway Bay on the Gold Coast.
Sitting down for lunch are people who epitomise today's skyrocketing social crisis – the long-term and newly poor; the long-term and newly homeless; the disenfranchised; those with mental health and general health issues; some on the verge of suicide, and others back from its brink.
The scale of need can seem insurmountable. For Theresa and her Agape team, the key to progress is always believing otherwise.
"How do I cope?" asks Theresa, who graduated with a Bachelor of Psychological Science in 2022 and Honours in 2023. "I cope by accepting that I will be stressed and upset. These are a given. But knowing that, it means I can concentrate on the big picture, which is the people who need me, and who need Agape."
Agape – pronounced A-Gar-Pay – is of Greek derivation, meaning unconditional love. When Theresa founded Agape in 2009, her motivation was also unconditional: to feed the hungry.
"I decided I couldn't just walk past when I saw people in need and hungry," she said in an earlier interview for Southern Cross University.
"I'm good at asking people for help and I was able to start getting food donations and start cooking meals. Since then, it's just grown.
"Agape isn't government-funded, so everything is fundraised. We still collect rescued food from shopping centres, bakeries and restaurants, and we use that for cooked meals and food hampers."
Originally from Mackay, there was a time when Theresa was one in need. Having relocated to the Tweed, Theresa's marriage abruptly ended and she was left pregnant, broke and alone. What she did next says much about her resilience and resolve.
Raising her son as a single mother, Theresa also raised funds and donations for other charities. She also fostered high-needs and disabled children – 37 over a six-year period – welcomed more than 180 international students into her home, and launched the Kids Care support program.
In a forerunner to Agape, she continued collecting and delivering leftover goods from local stores, serving the homeless and needy from Tweed Shire to Palm Beach. In 2015, she was named the Tweed Valley Women's Services Woman of the Year.
Wanting to do even more, in 2019 she turned to study.
"When I came to Southern Cross University, I had already been running Agape for several years. For all that experience, I knew that learning more meant that I could do more.
"My first class was about how to fill out an NDIS application. I was so over the moon that this degree was so practical, and I could use it in the real world to help people – so many things I learned have been so relevant."
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She could not have chosen a more opportune time to undertake her degree.
"In the past few years, this region has seen heartbreak piled on heartbreak due to the combined ravages of Covid-19, floods and now the cost-of-living crisis," says Theresa.
"Covid really kicked us in the gut financially, because so many businesses who support us sadly either closed or dropped off. The lockdowns imposed by the Queensland Government were a constant punishment. In some cases, they were tragic.
"Then, no sooner had the pandemic situation begun to ease than the region was hit by the 2022 floods, adding to the problem of homelessness that is only getting worse as temporary housing measures are dismantled and discontinued. On top of all that, we see the impact of the cost-of-living crisis every day at Agape.
"If groups like ours are to continue providing services and meeting social need, government support is urgently required.
"I am seeking new ways to speak the political and governmental language to better convey the magnitude of a situation that is only going to worsen without meaningful political support, interaction and understanding."
It is a constant battle. Fortunately, Theresa is not alone. Today, she leads more than 200 volunteers and a band of dedicated employees in delivering an expanding portfolio of services that includes case management support for accessing housing, medical and legal services; psychology and counselling support; and other training and support programs. In March 2024 she was named the NSW Regional Woman of the Year.
In accepting the challenge of alleviating social need, Theresa references the value of her Southern Cross University degree.
"My degree has helped me understand and define my direction. It has given me a set of psychological and practical skills that I can put towards the needs of the struggling people I meet every day," she says.
"It has also allowed me to recognise and celebrate the wins we have along the way, which is so important because they provide the impetus to jump into the challenges of tomorrow.
"And you know, sometimes a win can be as simple as a good lunch service."
With that, Theresa returns to the Agape kitchen, disappearing into the steam of the cooking pots.
