A guest blog post by my big-hearted friend Natascha Mirosch who is organising a very special dinner this Christmas Eve; Hospitality with Heart – and she needs your help!

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“I´ve just always been told: this is your life. Don´t ever expect anything more or wish for anything more.” Bertrina, YFS client and currently homeless.

What are you doing this Christmas Eve? Probably dreading the crack- of- dawn wake up rally from the kids desperate to get to their presents. Or perhaps you’re just looking forward to a long lunch with family and friends.

For many of Logan’s disadvantaged, including an estimated 10,000 children living in poverty, their immediate and urgent focus at Christmas is about where they’re going to sleep that night and how to keep their children safe.  Many have no extended family or are estranged from them, and with the majority of support services closed over the break, Christmas can be an extremely difficult and very lonely time of the year.

Hospitality with Heart is an informal group, consisting largely of largely media and hospitality professionals who want to help. We are not qualified to affect any long term change in the lives of people who are less blessed than we are, but we can help bring a little light into their lives at a time when they must feel forgotten.

As ‘Hospitality with Heart’, our group includes some of Brisbane’s finest chefs and restaurateurs as well as print and TV media professionals. We have teamed up with Logan charity YFS to produce a Christmas Eve party for the most needy families and individuals in Logan. They include children, victims of domestic abuse and refugee families. Our vision is to give them a night to remember, with an all- the- trimmings Christmas Eve party with beautiful food, music and hopefully lots of laughter.

We are all donating our time and (variable!) skills as chefs, waiters and cleaners for the night, but we are hoping for assistance to really make this a special evening. If you can help with any of the following items, please let us know:

Christmas hams, rice, beef for roast beef, bread, vegetables such as potatoes, tomoatoes, beans, onions, pumpkin, butter, Fruit, soft drink, gingerbread houses, prawns custard, whole fish, cream, Christmas puddings, ice-cream, salads, juices, chocolates, eggs, 4 large turkeys and more!

If you would like to donate money to help out, this can be done through YFS; please send a cheque to YFS, PO box 727 Woodridge 4114 and email finance@yfs.org.au to make a direct cash donation to YFS.

We are also seeking donations to provide goodie bags for men and women including small luxe itesm such as chocolates, hand cream, perfume, and other practical items. A hairdresser and manicurist to attend on Christmas Eve.

Your kindness is very much appreciated!

For more information or donate food, items or your time, please contact hospitalityforhomeless@gmail.com