The People’s Kitchen

Every Wednesday at Maleny RSL Sub Branch, a free, nourishing meal awaits anybody who wants one. 

Each meal is cooked with love by a trio of volunteers – creators of a pop-up kitchen that locals have dubbed ‘The People’s Kitchen’. 

One of the trio – retired engineer Brian Nixon – is eager to feed those doing it toughest, but stresses that everyone is welcome.  

“We're not targeting homeless; we're not targeting unemployed; we're targeting everybody,” Brian says.  

“Just anyone who wants to come and have a meal. If Mum or Dad doesn't feel like cooking for the night, they can bring the kids along and have something to eat.” 

Three cooks, one dream  

Brian founded The People’s Kitchen with Maggie Beal and Rayna Bond, whom he met at the Maleny Neighbourhood Centre, where the three volunteered as cooks. “The three of us get on really well. We've cooked together for a few years,” Brian says.  

“After moving on from the Neighbourhood Centre, we were having a coffee and thought, we miss each other. We love cooking and we thought there was a need in the community, so we thought we'd start a soup kitchen.” 

They had the skills and the enthusiasm – but they needed somewhere to operate. 

After many fruitless enquiries, Brian approached long-time Maleny RSL Sub Branch member Chris Brooker, who looks after the Sub Branch hall and bar. 

“Brian enquired if the hall would be available as they had trouble with other venues,” Chris says.  

“We jumped at the chance to be involved, and I’m happy to see us supporting a necessary community service.” 

Sub Branch President Paul Gilmour-Walsh says The People’s Kitchen was a natural addition to the Sub Branch, which regularly hosts fundraising events and other initiatives to support worthy causes.  

“Our little RSL likes to work with the community,” he says. “We’re more than happy to have [The People’s Kitchen] on our veranda, overlooking our cenotaph.” 

“The venue is excellent,” Brian says. “Chris has been absolutely fantastic to us – just his encouragement and setting up what we could do, what nights we could do it. He and Paul pop over every week to see how it's going. They couldn't be more helpful.” 

Cooking for the community  

With free use of the Sub Branch veranda, hall and kitchen, The People’s Kitchen hosted its first soup night in September and has welcomed appreciative diners every week since. 

“It's grown quite considerably,” Brian says. “To start with, we were only getting six to eight people. We get 20 to 30 people a week now, and we've graduated from soup and are now doing meals and desserts. 

“We have some people who come in every week, and that’s encouraging. Everyone is lovely and really appreciative of the support.” 

Special of the week 

Most of The People’s Kitchen’s ingredients are donated by local shops and growers, making menu planning a bit of a creative adventure. But there’s always a soup, a vegetarian dish, and home-cooked favourites ranging from lasagne to curry, shepherd’s pie, and pasta and rice dishes. 

“Woolworths and IGA have been extremely generous,” Brian says. “A lot of locals have market gardens, so people will drop in a couple of pumpkins or something. So really, we don't know what we're cooking until we get the food, and we may have to add to that if we don't have enough. It's quite adventurous in that way. 

“We got a frozen turkey and ham from Woolworths, so we'll be doing a bit of a Christmas theme on Wednesday 20 December with carols and so on.” 

He says any food that’s donated gets used, and other supermarket donations – like cereal, baby wipes, soft drinks, or kitty litter – are offered free along with the meals. 

While Brian and his team don’t seek donations of money, they gratefully accept those offered. 

“A gentleman came in the other day and I asked, ‘What can we help you with?’ And he said, ‘I'm not here for a meal. Do you take donations?’ And he was extremely generous with a donation. I actually got quite emotional about it because we don't expect anything.” 

For the love of food and charity  

With music playing and a mix of regulars, newcomers, kids and pets, each evening at The People’s Kitchen brings a “fun, friendly” atmosphere with a warm sense of community.   

“Chris normally arrives in the afternoon and puts the table and chairs out for us,” Brian says. “We set the food up at about four o'clock. But by about five o'clock, all the tables are pulled together. We had a group come in the other day and somebody knew someone else. Before we knew it, we had 12 people sitting around one table.” 

“It just sort of hit home that they might be doing it a bit tough, but the meal also provided a very good social outing for them,” Paul adds. “It’s rewarding to see people satisfied – smiling faces.” 

So far, Brian’s team hasn’t needed the community’s many offers of help, but Brian expects that will change as their turnout grows. He’d also love to see other communities start something similar.  

“It'd be really nice to think that this would take off and somebody else could do it and help people out. 

“Someone said, ‘You must be proud of what you're doing’. I don't even know what that means. We do it because we enjoy it, and it's helping people. We just love cooking, we love food, and we enjoy the company and camaraderie of people coming for a meal every week.” 

 
Details  

The People’s Kitchen 

Where: Maleny RSL Sub Branch, 1 Bunya Street, Maleny, Qld 

When: 4:30-6:30pm every Wednesday (Please note, The People’s Kitchen may be closed occasionally for Sub Branch functions.)  

Cost: Free  

Open to all ages. Pets are welcome on the veranda. 


For enquiries/donations please contact Brian Nixon via thebriannixon@hotmail.com or 0412 033 304. 

See the What's On Event  Contact the local Sub Branch