The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs have spent their Monday giving back in the kitchen and the cool room at the Loaves and Fishes Restaurant in Ashfield, to support the Rev Bill Crews Foundation.
The full squad came together with staff, equaling more than 40, to turn out the morning after their final clash of the season and head to the Rev Bill Crews Foundation to simply give back.
"It didn’t surprise me when Reed told me this was what the playing group wanted to do once the season was over," said Bulldogs CEO Aaron Warburton.
The Bulldogs purpose is to unite and inspire, and I am immensely proud of how our team has come together to live out this purpose. Our team members wholeheartedly chose to be part of this meaningful community outreach and it shows me how much they recognise and value the importance of giving back.
"There has been a lot of noise of late calling our club and club leaders into question but in this instance, I think a picture says a thousand words. I couldn't be prouder of their unity and commitment to upholding the culture that they have fostered together as a playing group and under Cameron [Ciraldo] and his staff. This is the essence of a Family Club, and the culture that we see here at the Bulldogs.
"The Bulldogs are a proud, community-based club and we are extremely proud to be able to give back to our local community through this initiative today."
The Rev. Bill Crews Foundation provides direct assistance to address the cause and effect of homelessness, poverty and disadvantage. They succeed in achieving this through caring services including food provision, social welfare and education support.
"The work that the Reverend, his team, and volunteers do through the Rev Bill Crews Foundation is simply inspiring. They bring people together, and help them in difficult times and when they need it most."
"The Bulldogs purpose is to unite and inspire, and I am immensely proud of how our team has come together to live out this purpose. Our team members wholeheartedly chose to be part of this meaningful community outreach and it shows me how much they recognise and value the importance of giving back."
The Loaves and Fishes restaurant is their on-site soup kitchen, which delivers hot meals twice a day to those in need, serving both breakfast and lunch on-site at Ashfield as well as delivering meal services three times a day remotely via food vans. The Foundation can serve over 30,000 free meals a month to those in need.
The idea to head there in lieu of a 'mad Monday' came from the senior leadership group and followed on from previous initiatives the Club has run in recent years with the Reverend and the Foundation, including a Christmas Food Appeal and donation in December.
Arriving on-site today, the players were welcomed by Rev. Bill Crews, Foundation staff and volunteers before splitting up into three working groups to prepare and package cutlery items, clean and re-stock the cool room, package and prepare non-perishable food hampers for sharing, before helping serve lunch and chat with guests.
"It was a really eye opening experience," said halfback, Toby Sexton.
"The boys kind of split up in different areas, some were in the kitchen, some were making food out the back, and I didn't do either. I ended up just socialising with a few different people and I got to have some pretty cool conversations with a lot of people."
"I met one fella who is there every day of the week, seven days a week. He goes in for breakfast and lunch and he is mostly there because he sometimes gets bored and just misses being able to socialise. He gets to go in there and have people around him. I was chatting to him all this morning," he said.
"A lot of them are in pretty difficult situations, where I guess they are struggling to find a place to live and a lot of them living on the streets. Us as rugby league players, we are very fortunate in regards to what we're able to do and we've all got really safe homes to go to every night and they struggle with that."
Aside from just being a humbling experience, the squad has drawn inspiration from the visit and their interactions with the Foundation staff and guests:
"I think the whole playing group was unreal today. Obviously it's been a pretty difficult season but to do something like this today after our season is over, it was really cool to see and all of the boys really bought into the whole event today," Sexton said.
"I guess it's just giving back to the community: It was a cool experience for us to do together and I am really grateful to have been able to give back."
