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As of March 1 this year, BCS LifeCare has acquired the community program Food 4 Life, which is already supporting 3000 families and individuals in the Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Port Stephens area.  

For more than 20 years, Mark Hallett travelled the globe as an itinerant evangelist and often found himself in slums areas, be it in Africa, Asia or Eastern Europe. As well as verbally sharing the hope of Christ, Mark, supported by churches back in Australia, sought to make a practical difference in the lives of people in need of food, clothing and shelter.  

Back in Newcastle, serving as an inner city pastor, Mark had a growing conviction that more needed to be done for the poor in his own hometown.  

“There was growing evidence of homeless people on the streets, more people approaching our church with basic human needs, more headlines about social problems in the inner city and concerning  statistics about families growing hungry in Newcastle,” Mr Hallett told Trust on a recent tour of the inner city.  

“And so we decided that we should seek to do something and feeding people struggling to make ends meet seemed like a good place to start.”  

Birthed in October 2007, Food 4 Life has been an exciting and challenging faith journey.  

From a humble shopfront on Newcastle’s main street, Hunter Street, Mark and a team of volunteers began to supply struggling families and individuals with food items.  

“We opened the doors and people began to come from across the city, not only wanting cheap food, but help with many other needs.”  

Over the past 16 months, Food 4 Life has grown from one shop to five, with plans for further growth in the year ahead.  

Following negotiations over the past six months, BCS will acquire the program from March 1, with the vision of further expanding Food 4 Life Services in other parts of NSW, while also using Food 4 Life as a base to grow other LifeCare services in the Newcastle area.

Mr Hallett will join the staff at BCS LifeCare and continue to manage the program, with his growing team of paid staff and volunteers.

Food 4 Life has opened shops in Newcastle, Beresfield, Windale, Raymond Terrace and Wallsend.

Expansion plans include new stores in other parts of the Hunter in the year ahead.

Under the Food 4 Life concept, clients register with the service and are invited to make a donation for food they receive. Food is accessed from Food Bank NSW, a non-denominational, charitable organisation which sources donated and surplus food from the food and grocery industry to distribute to welfare and community agencies that provide food assistance to people in need.

Beyond these supplies, Mr Hallett and his team have negotiated the purchase of other food from other suppliers and have recently begun also stocking frozen food items. Fruit and vegetables are next on the list to be introduced to the shops.

Mr Hallett said Food 4 Life had 3000 families and individuals registered and the numbers kept growing on a weekly basis.

“Behind every client is a unique story and they all have their own needs, be they financial struggles, issues with housing, the need for other support services, addiction problems, mental illness or family breakdown.”

“The great privilege of what we are doing is that we just don’t provide cheap food, we are making connections that enable us to open doors to provide other assistance.”

“The shop is really a connection point and we are helping people with other physical and emotional needs. Ultimately we are pointing people to the hope that Jesus brings to life.”

Mr Hallett said he was excited that Food 4 Life was becoming a part of a great Christian care organisation like BCS and he was looking forward to joining the BCS LifeCare team as the on-going manager of the service.

“I am excited about the potential to develop the model in other areas where BCS LifeCare already has a presence, along with seeing a growth in BCS services in Newcastle that will complement what we are doing.”

“BCS has overt Christian values and our vision for Food 4 Life sits so well with the vision of BCS to respond to unmet needs in Christ’s name.”

More information about the BCS Food 4 Life program.