SW hungry, homeless left in lurch

Some of Bunbury's homeless and low-income residents will be worse off after the Red Cross Soup Patrol van was forced off the road because of vehicle problems.

The mobile service provides free evening meals of hot soup and bread to people who are homeless or on low incomes and has operated in Bunbury on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

After noticing problems with the van on Easter Sunday, Soup Patrol volunteer Penny Farnell said she received an email from the program's coordinator advising the service was cancelled until further notice.

"I noticed the headlights weren't working well and we had to use high-beam when we drove around (and) the volunteers on Saturday did one stop and decided to turn around because they felt it was too dangerous," she said.

"An email was sent to the volunteers on the following Monday to see if anyone could drop it off at a tyre repair shop and pick it up but the following day, another email went out to say the service was cancelled indefinitely."

Ms Farnell said she felt shocked and disappointed when she received the email.

"I was really disappointed because I've volunteered with the service for eight years and it's a service that has helped many people," she said.

Foodbank Bunbury manager Carol Hearn said she was concerned about the impact on her organisation from the Soup Patrol's indefinite cancellation.

"We are already struggling - we have plenty of fresh produce but we don't have much frozen produce and protein products like eggs and meat," she said.

"The Soup Patrol is a service that reaches people that we don't, and many homeless and low-income people aren't able to prepare.

"I feel sincerely sad about the situation."

Ms Farnell said the van visited up to 24 people a night at places like the Withers Community Library, the Wittenoom Street carpark and the Salvation Army on Timperley Road.

"It's really disappointing for those who are living week-to-week and need their meals provided to help stretch their budgets," she said.

Ms Farnell said she would like to see repairs completed and the van back on the road as soon as possible.

She said she would "also love to see some money set aside" so the van could be maintained to road standards "and for this never to happen again".

Editorial, page 12