My daughter Tory and I peer into Don Bosco House in inner city Marrickville.
The youth officer opens the locked front door, hands me a large knife and Tory a lighter for the gas stove and we head down the corridor.
We pass bedrooms, graffitti, a billiard table, mix-match gym machines, a well worn mega lounge with a girl watching the TV, EminEm belting through the house, the dining room -
‘Here’s the pantry. Up to you, what to cook.’
Tory & I look at each other. ‘For how many people?”
Around 10 and then the youth officer is gone and we’re in the kitchen.
It’s a search and discover expedition – our menu:-
Wholemeal pasta, tomatoes, onions, capiscum, bacon pieces, carrots, pesto sauce……and more. We start.
The knife is the bluntest knife possible. I cut the onions with big strokes. Tory’s into the chopping the tomatoes.
Really liked meeting the kids.
They chatted, talked about sharing Don Bosco House with 10 other kids. Don Bosco House was giving them a chance to work out their lives.
One girl was starting at TAFE. One young guy with plenty of studs in his face was starting work at a tattoo parlour doing piercings.
Some of the kids spoke to us, others didn’t. The staff were cool and everyone liked our mega pasta.
What wasn’t eaten will be taken on the on the Youth off The Streets bus to feed homeless.