By Alesha Capone
A Point Cook girl with a big heart is reaching out to homeless people.
Seven-year-old Andi has founded an organisation named Food for Free which distributes snack packs and meals to homeless people. She has also set up Facebook and GoFundMe.com pages to help fundraise for the work she is doing.
Andi said she was inspired to help the homeless after she saw people sleeping on the footpath in Adelaide, where her father regularly travels for work. She said she wanted to establish a restaurant where homeless people could eat for free and had started out by making the snack packs to give to people sleeping rough in Adelaide.
The snack packs, usually comprising muesli bars, chips, cookies and muffins, are decorated with the Food for Free mascot, a panda, which was inspired by Andi’s nickname, “Andi Pandi”.
On her last trip to Adelaide, Andi also gave out hot meals to homeless people.
“Sometimes, I’m a little nervous when I’m handing them out,” Andi said. “But the people say, ‘Thank you’, and one man put his hand on his heart.”
While she distributes the food, Andi is accompanied by her parents, Rebekah and Adam Treloar, and her brother, Tex, 4.
“I always like filling up drinks and handing them out,” Tex said.
Mrs Treloar said they were very proud of their daughter.
“She has a really big heart,” she said.
See www.facebook.com/fantasticfoodforfree/ or www.gofundme.com/fantasticfoodforfree for details or to make a donation.
