If 20 people walked through the door looking for a feed, it wouldn’t faze Terrell Lohman.

Margaret Davidson started the Casino Community Kitchen four years ago and is thrilled about the enthusiasm and cooking skills of the kitchen’s new president.

Terrell moved to Casino from Melbourne three years ago.

“Part of my treechange was to slow down and do community work,” Terrell said.

Making food is a way of showing affection, she said.

It was her neighbour who told her about what was then called the Casino Soup Kitchen and was then in Simpson Parade.

The neighbour is blind and did the dishes every Friday night at the kitchen.

“All of our volunteers are amazing, I’m really proud of them,” Margaret said.

Two high school students are regular volunteers on the Friday.

While the kitchen runs to provide relief for those who are “food-stressed” it is also about social connection, Margaret said.

Most of the food is provided by the national Second Bite organisation that redistributes good quality fresh produce, meat and bread – and stops it going into landfill, she said.

“There are many farmers who still donate farm produce such as pumpkins, mangoes, lemons, eggs and the like. During covid we saved 10 tonnes of food that otherwise would have gone to landfill through our home deliveries and drive-through method of serving the community.”

Now at the new location in the Life Church on North St, Margaret and Terrell would like to see the numbers of people they feed go back to pre-covid levels of 30 meals on a Friday night.

Margaret wanted to thank Richmond Valley Council for its support in the past four years and the Casino Men’s Shed who made cabinets for the kitchen.

Casino Community Kitchen at 85 North St, Casino is open for dinner every Friday at 4.30pm.

If you’d like to volunteer in the kitchen phone 0400 155 392 or go to Facebook and search for Casino Community Kitchen.

This article appeared in the Richmond River Independent, 16 June 2021.