About Us
We are a group of committed community volunteers who seek to engage and connect with people from all walks of life, expressing God's love by providing food, friendship and support to those who are marginalised and lonely within the broader Narre community. We care about those who are finding it tough.
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Founding Pastor
Rev'd Keith Vethaak
Email: keith.vethaak@gmail.com
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General Enquiries and Management
Pastor Malcolm McQuie
Transit’s Manager
0484 986 466
Email: malcolm.transit@gmail.com
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Food Support Enquiries
Dot O"Neill
Volunteer
0428 882 068
Email: oneills777@gmail.com
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Grants and Special Events Officer
Michelle Pinxt
0425 852 056Email: michelle.transitsoupkitchen@gmail.com
Location
Address
Transit Soup Kitchen and Food Support (formally Narre Warren Christian Church)
5/3 Webb Street, Narre Warren
(Opposite IGA and The Railway Carpark)
Our History
2009
Narre Warren Christian Church was founded in 1986 by the Reformed Churches of Dandenong and Doveton as a “street level” outreach Church. The mission of the Church is to provide a safe place and a healing community for all, but especially for those who are doing it tough for whatever reason.
The Church sought to be loving, non-judgemental and inclusive. It began meeting at the Narre Warren Community Centre but later moved to their own premises (formerly a Motor Body Repair Shop) in Webb St backing onto the Railway Car Park.
During the first ten years of its existence NWCC formed a partnership with the (then) City of Berwick and ran two Crisis Accommodation homes. This ministry helped many families and continued until the government decided to remove Crisis Houses from all community groups and reassigned all crisis accommodation to a couple of larger organisations.
Transit was established after consultation with Cornerstone Drop in Centre in Dandenong and the request from Narre Warren Support Organisations for this type of service in the Narre Warren area with volunteers being drawn from a variety of backgrounds.
The church began serving meals to community members and at that stage had a pool table for these guests.
As time went on the Wednesday lunch meal turned out to be very popular. Some groceries were available for guests. A Monday evening meal was also started as the church reached further into the community. Extra groceries and bread became available for the guests.
2015
Meals were served, food was handed out and school and community groups volunteered. There was a Wednesday cooking team as well as a Monday evening cooking team. When school groups came in to volunteer there could be over 20 enthusiastic volunteers handing out food as well as those cooking meals.
In 2015 it was decided to open up Transit for families to come and get food on a Thursday between 2.00pm and 4.30pm.
2020
At the end of March 2020 Transit was suddenly hit with a crisis as meals could no longer be served and volunteers needed to "social distance." It was decided to go to a "Delivery Only" mode to get food out to our guests. Transit was quickly turned into what looked like a warehouse with boxes and bags of food were assembled. Up to 80 guests rang up to arrange to get their food. For about 4 weeks this continued until volunteers were exhausted and decided that this arrangement could no longer be sustained.
The building was again transformed so that food could be accessed in safety with guests coming into Transit one by one and selecting their own food. Some deliveries have continued to people unable to come to Transit to get their food.
With tighter community lockdowns and jobs being lost there are now many extra people coming to Transit to access food. The "Transit Volunteers' continue to share the love of Christ with all who come.