Night Ninjas plea for funds with more homeless families on the streets

The plea comes as Night Ninjas, which provides help to the homeless and those struggling in the Redland community, saw the delivery of 187 meals as they received 56 more cases to their door within one month.

Founder and chief executive officer Alix Russo said she was desperate to fundraise for the van after seeing an influx of people at the weekly feeds and had a major call out from those who could not travel to use their services.

“There are so many new faces during the cooler months and there have been a lot are families that are needing our help,” she said.

“More and more people are living paycheck to paycheck and one big bill can spiral out of control and face these situations (like homelessness).”

Ms Russo said buying a van would mean volunteers would no longer have to use their cars to being goods to the weekly night feeds.

“If we had a van to deck out, we could use the back as a food station and pick up our volunteers on the way,” she said.

“During the week it could be used by the Day Call Out teams stocked with tents, sleeping bags, basic clothing, first aid supplies, food parcels (and) toiletries to support all homeless clients with most of their immediate needs.”

Ms Russo said despite the community’s generosity, including Red Truck Roofing who donated $10,000 and non-perishable food items and Officeworks’ $1,677 donation, Night Ninjas still had a long way to go in buying a van.

“There are so many ways the community can help from having bake sales and buying our pins at local stores to hosting a pyjama day like one of the Redlands schools did recently,” she said.

To donate funds to Night Ninjas, visit their Facebook website here.