Community · Issue 011 · Hawkesbury, New South Wales, Australia
The help that was already there
Linda and Cassidy began with home-cooked meals and kept coming back. Fifteen years later, the help was still there when their community needed it most.
Lens · Published 15 October 2026 · 2 minute read
Linda and Cassidy kept showing up
What had ordinary weeks made possible?
Week after week, people had cooked meals, shared supplies and built local relationships. When the floods came, the community did not have to begin from nothing. The help was already there.
What people heard
A food outreach was ready when floods reached the Hawkesbury.
Listen to the article text
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Illustrative photograph: boxes and food supplies gathered for distribution.Photo: CHUTTERSNAP · Unsplash License · Does not depict the reported people or events
Linda Strickland and her daughter Cassidy began with something direct: they cooked meals and took them to people staying in a local park. Then they came back. Fifteen years later, Hawkesbury’s Helping Hands had grown into a community organisation sharing food, essentials and practical support. [H1]
When flooding hit in 2020, the care built during those ordinary weeks became part of the emergency response. Linda told the ABC that their homelessness work meant they already had useful things on hand: air mattresses, pet supplies and snacks. They also had years of local relationships to draw on. [H1]
Today, the organisation lists community meals, showers, laundry, practical assistance and disaster preparation and recovery among its services. What began with a mother and daughter carrying cooked meals into a park has become several ways for people to find practical support. [H2]
That is the good at the centre of this story. The meals mattered when they were handed over. So did the decision to return the next week, and the week after that. Along the way, people built relationships, gathered useful supplies and learned how to get help where it was needed.
By the time the floods came, care was not an idea the Hawkesbury had to invent in a crisis. People had already been practising it together for years.
Follow the thread
Linda and Cassidy brought meals, kept returning and helped build relationships and supplies their community could later draw on during floods.
What this could change
Regular local support can become emergency capacity, but that capacity requires storage, volunteers and reliable supply.
Before the next flood
Prepared supplies and trusted relationships could shorten the time needed to respond.
Watch: The organisation’s disaster preparation and recovery updates.
Pressure on volunteers
A wider role can also increase workload and dependence on uncertain donations.
Watch: Funding, volunteer numbers and service limits.
Evidence, limits and the next question
Still open: Do not repeat a blanket claim of no government support: the ABC report discusses a volunteer grant and publicly funded upstream food providers as well as the founder’s account.
