Birds of Passage

Birds of Passage is a non-profit organisation that holds a weekly food run in Woolloomooloo for the rough sleepers of that area. They provide around 100 meals each week, and depend on the assistance of volunteers and donors to acquire, prepare and serve food.

I discovered Birds of Passage earlier this year, when searching for an organisation that I thought may be able to help me bring music to the homeless. I checked it out with a friend in February.

By the end of our session, we were hooked. I had lots of fun speed cooking and making new acquaintances, and I found it really refreshing to look these rough sleepers in the face and be able to offer them something. The place where they set up was also almost ideal for potential performances - walls on the sides and back to bounce the sound outwards, and close enough to the cooking set up that we would have some protection if we experienced any aggression. We approached one of the senior volunteers about our idea, and they seemed very keen. Apparently, there had been musicians before, but they had stopped coming because they started to feel nervous/unsafe.

I had not intended to approach them that night about our idea, so I didn't actually have anyone or anything organised to start bringing music to Birds, but it was good to know that they were on board.

The next time I volunteered with them was after the end of 1st Semester. This long gap made me realise how easily I could let this slip through my fingers if I forgot about it, so subsequently booked myself in to volunteer every week for the next few months. This time, we actually brought along instruments on the offchance that there would be too many volunteers and not enough cooking jobs to go round. While ultimately we did end up cooking, we caught the eye of another senior volunteer. It turns out the runs are led by different people each week, and she jumped to take us up for her next run as music volunteers.