>
Inside the new Australian supermarket where EVERYTHING is completely FREE
- Australia’s first free supermarket has opened offering free food and supplies
- The non-profit organization Serving Our People opened the store in Gold Coast
- The shop is packed with donated goods for Australians in need this Christmas.
A supermarket has officially opened offering free food, drink and supplies to help struggling Australians this Christmas.
The non-profit organization Serving Our People opened Queensland’s first free supermarket on the Gold Coast on Thursday.
The store, which is staffed entirely by volunteers, is packed with donated items being given to those in need.
Serving Our People founder Yas Matbouly spoke about the generous concept with Seven’s breakfast show Sunrise.
Australia’s first free supermarket has opened on the Gold Coast to help those struggling this Christmas
“We have all recipients across Queensland who will have access to our first free supermarket that we are launching today,” he said.
“Hopefully this will definitely help thousands and thousands of Australians who are having a hard time at the moment, to help them with basic food needs.”
The volunteers arrived at the store at 6 am to prepare the supermarket and prepare it for its official opening.
Matbouly said the store has been “amazingly received” by the community, with many hard-pressed Australians turning up to buy goods for Christmas.
“We have about 350 homeless friends coming in a couple of hours for a homeless Christmas lunch who will also have access to the first free supermarket,” he revealed.
“It’s creating a huge impact, we hope to help thousands and thousands over the period.”
The organization’s founder, Yas Matbouly (pictured), said the supermarket has been “amazingly received” by the community and shared his hopes of helping thousands of people.
Mr. Matbouly explained that the free goods in the store are donated by the community. Volunteers from the organization will collect merchandise from the donation boxes.
The organization’s founder thanked local community members who had already generously donated bags of non-perishable food in time for the store’s opening.
Serving Our People have set up donation boxes at Coles supermarkets in the Gold Coast, Brisbane and Logan for Queenslanders who wish to donate food.
The general public can put any item in there, like canned tuna, pasta, whatever, and then our team will go pick it up and then we’ll take it to the free supermarket to make it into love bags. ‘ Matbouly said.
He added that the organization would focus on providing shelter to people in need next.