Nominated for an Ozzie Award: “Without the team from Mama Lana’s, I would’ve been dead years ago.”

- Richard Porelli, a former aid receiver at Mama Lana’s who now dedicates himself full-time to the charity as a volunteer as a means to say thank you.

Let’s talk about a little white house that sits on a street corner in Penrith— had you not previously known this house was there, you could miss it.

Lana and Roger Borg rent out this house to be able to repurpose it as a safe-haven for people who are homeless or doing it rough. The house can often be seen filled with any number of their 200+ volunteers and some of the many people who come by to utilise the laundry and shower facilities, get assistance with basic supplies or have come for a hot meal—all from different walks of life; sitting, eating, laughing and talking with one another.

Mama Lana’s house is open for meal service 6 nights a week. Patrons can stop by, grab a hot meal and a drink, no questions asked, and no judgements passed.

The homeless epidemic in Australia is on the rise, on any given night across Australia more than 116,000 people are sleeping rough on the streets.

As touching as Mama Lana’s little white house is, the story of how they got to where they are today needs to be told in order to understand how truly amazing Lana and Roger Borg really are.

In October 2013, horrendous bushfires tore through the Blue Mountains and destroyed over 200 homes, Lana Borg saw that the fire fighters were working until their last breath to try and extinguish the mass destruction. Most men didn’t stop to eat, sleep or rest. Lana knew most of them wouldn’t have had a proper, nutritious home-cooked meal in days.

"I contacted the fire chief up there (in the Blue Mountains) and asked if they’d like hot meals, and the chief said yes, so I took some time off work and cooked for 12 days straight.”

Through her efforts and the gift of social media, Lana was contacted by someone who had seen what she did via Facebook and asked her if she’d like to cook a banquet Christmas Day dinner for the homeless in Penrith. At this stage, Lana was unaware that there was a homeless problem in Penrith.

That’s when Lana did some more research and found out that a Vinnie’s food service van served tea, coffee and sandwiches under the former ‘Trade Secret Bridge’ in Penrith before it got pulled down. This is where Lana and her husband got their first look at how severe the homeless epidemic in Penrith was, at this stage, there was only 15-20 homeless patrons attending the Vinnie’s van for food and beverage assistance.

Lana offered to make hot meals for Vinnie’s to give out and did so for a few nights until there was a change in health and safety regulations, and Vinnie’s could no longer accept the meals from Lana anymore. Lana and Roger were told that if they wished to continue on preparing and delivering hot meals, they would have to do it themselves.

“By this stage, it wasn’t even Christmas yet and we already knew everyone by name and couldn’t really walk away.”

Lana and Roger were left with no choice but to contact Penrith Council to find out how to register a charity- “by Christmas we were serving under our own name and by February, we were registered.”

Mama Lana’s initially started serving under their own name three nights per week under the ‘Trade Secret Bridge’ until it got pulled down and they had to move to ‘Judge’s Car Park’ where they remained and served the homeless for a couple of years.

“My goal was to always have our own premises and to be able to serve with dignity, sitting at a table and chairs rather than in a parking lot where it was cold and dark and not very nice.”

Despite Lana and Roger’s love for helping people, they were struggling themselves as they don’t have high paying jobs and have a mortgage of their own as well as having 7 children aged between 9-30-years-old.

The dream of owning their own premises seemed like just that, a dream.

Until one day, a volunteer who was avidly looking for grants for Mama Lana’s was able to get a grant from the AMP Foundation which covered one year’s worth of rent for a house. This was the start of the miracles to come from the little white house in Penrith.

Their doors are now open two days a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) to let patrons utilise their showers and laundry service as well as receive breakfast and lunch while they’re there— dinner service is also run six nights a week.

Mama Lana’s receives food donations from many generous companies such as: Aldi, Woolworths, Secondbite, Foodbank and Nandos—just to name a few.

Lana and Roger are now lucky enough to say they receive enough donations from the public and suppliers that it isn’t often that they have to put their hand in their own pockets. However, it wasn’t always like this.

In the beginning, Lana and her husband racked up $10,000 of debt to keep Mama Lana’s running and to continue being able to feed all those people who relied so heavily on their services.

“We were passionate about it and wouldn’t have thought twice to do it and we would do it all again if we had to” says Lana.

On any given night, Mama Lana’s can feed anywhere between 55-95 people with their average being at least 75 patrons a night.

Mama Lana’s has reached out to a local nursing home and asked the residents if they’d like to cook meals one night a week if the charity were to provide all the groceries - they delightfully accepted. “They love it (cooking meals for the homeless) it gives them (the elderly residents) purpose.”

Not only does Mama Lana’s house provide patrons with hot meals, showers, laundry services and hampers, but it also offers free counselling services on Tuesday's as well as having Wentworth Housing come by on Thursday’s to offer their services as an outreach. Other services include case workers coming by for legal help, interview training, resume writing, free flu vaccinations and the 'Homeless Hub' which is a set day where patrons can come by and access many services in one safe space including but not limited to, Centrelink, lawyers/legal assistance, vets to help their pets, doctors, etc.

Domestic violence is one of the biggest contributing factors as to why people end up homeless or in a rough state. In 2018, Mission Australia assisted 20,264 people who were left homeless after escaping domestic violence situations.

Meghan Hatt who has worked with Mama Lana’s for a year as a volunteer pantry organiser, says she has had many interactions with people needing help after escaping domestic violence.

As a pantry organiser, Meghan not only keeps everything organised so that cooks and volunteers know exactly where everything is, but she also prepares hamper packages for those in need; whether they’re living rough on the streets or struggling to make ends meet until their next pay, there are no judgements here.

Part of her role involves organising hampers for people escaping domestic violence situations. Meghan has encountered so many people who are scared, hungry and just looking for help—she has countless reasons as to why she volunteers, but one sticks with her in particular.

“It was the middle of last year, not long after I started working here, a woman and her son came in and he was only about two or three? Probably about three because he was speaking alright. They came in from a domestic violence situation and I’m making a big hamper up for them to help them out and the little boy said “I don’t like my daddy, daddy hurts us”—for him to say that, and recognise that… that really- that touched me.”

I was lucky enough to be able to spend a day volunteering at the Mama Lana house and seeing first hand all the behind the scene work that goes into helping the hundreds of people that come by each week.

During this time, I had the pleasure of meeting an avid volunteer, Richard Purelli. He shared his emotional journey from being homeless and in desperate need of help, to now volunteering full-time at Mama Lana’s as a means to say thank you for all that they’ve done for him.

Richard explains that Mama Lana’s helped him get his medication sorted while he was living on the streets because Centrelink wouldn’t provide him with payments as he had no address. Mama Lana’s volunteers also got Richard connected to the people he needed to be connected to in order to get him into the unit he now lives in today.

“Due to that, I was extremely appreciative because it helped me get back on my feet. So, I decided to turn around and help and I loved it, so I continued.”

Richard is physically disabled yet still dedicates himself as Mama Lana’s first-hand man, whatever needs doing, he gets done— this could include cooking, general maintenance, cleaning, deliveries, etc.

According to a report conducted by SBS News, the federal, state and territory governments spent $817.4 million in 2016/17 in an attempt to tackle homelessness.

When Richard was asked if he believed the Government is doing enough to help put an end to homelessness, he strongly disagreed. “The Government needs to wake up to themselves —the amount of homeless people across the country, it’s ridiculous!”

Charities such as Mama Lana’s are living proof as to why we need more help Australia-wide. Without the help of Mama Lana’s, thousands of people would go hungry, they would not have access to clean bathroom and laundry facilities, and not have the opportunity to get professional help in areas such as finding housing or jobs.

Lana’s short-term plan is to run her current organisation more smoothly as she feels they’re definitely out-growing the little white house and she would like to find a way to run the organisation more efficiently.

Lana also maintains a full-time job as an aged-care nurse while managing Mama Lana’s, and says she’d love nothing more than to quit her job and run this organisation full-time but “we struggle as it is, we have a mortgage and everything to pay ourselves— but that’s my goal, to be here and run this every day.”

Lana is currently discussing with the local government and council the possibility of her quitting her job and getting paid to run the organisation full-time, but Lana does not want to turn her charity into a business.

“It’s one of my pet hates—anyone who runs a charity and gets paid for it. It’s voluntary. You do it because you love it, you don’t volunteer and then get paid for it.”

However, despite her fears, Lana has been told to think of herself as a resource to the company, not a paid volunteer as only she knows all the admin work behind the charity and spends hours handling paperwork.

“I hate it (admin work) I want to be out there, mingling with people and cooking— I always said from the beginning that I don’t ever want to be stuck behind a desk. I want to make sure I’m in the kitchen cooking.”

When asked about the long-term goal and what Lana sees in the future for her organisation, she says she’d like to get into actually housing her patrons.

“At the moment, they get into temporary accommodation and it’s usually only 1-3 months depending on who it’s with— and then if they (the homeless person) haven’t found anything else, they’re basically back on the street.”

Lana’s goal is to be able to work with homeless people and housing organisations to be able to provide long-term housing of 6-12 months. She hopes that during this time, the person experiencing homelessness can get a rental history for themselves to show they’ve been paying rent, as well as assist them in getting a job. Lana wants to also assist the individual with any mental illness or abuse they may have suffered— whether it’s alcohol, drugs, physical or mental; she wants to get the individual to the appropriate help and then eventually, into private rentals of their own.

When Lana was asked how she does it all and how she can recommend other people get involved she had this to say:

“We don’t look past it (the homelessness) we just accept people on face value and we just don’t judge them, everybody’s done something wrong in their lives that they’re not happy with or that they’re ashamed of—no one’s perfect.”

Lana recognises that if someone has come and approached her organisation for help, that they’re obviously wanting to change their ways.

“We don’t worry about what they’ve done or where they’ve been. We just take them today and try to help them through to tomorrow. I think people just need to offer kindness with no strings— like our motto says.”

What’s next for Mama Lana’s? Well, Lana is currently discussing with Blue Mountains council about offering a ‘footpath food service’ for 1-2 nights per week which will be run by Lana’s husband, Roger, and one other volunteer.

If you’d like to learn more about Mama Lana’s and see first-hand the amazing work they do, ‘like’ their Facebook page Mama Lana’s Community Foundation.

If you would like to make a donation so that Mama Lana’s can continue their amazing work, please do so here.