Nowra's Sunday Langar: Food for all, but so much more.

Two things happened last week to bring into sharper focus the way we as individuals create our Shoalhaven community.

One was sad, the other applauded, but both inspirational and practical.

Outspoken political activist and grassroots advocate, Michelle Miran, died after battling (and raising awareness of) ocular melanoma.

And Nowra's Nanak Free Community Kitchen, medical Dr Gurdeep Bagari and the Sunday Community Support Group were congratulated in parliament.

Member for South Coast, Liza Butler, noted Michelle Miran's determined community work, outside the Labor Party, managing a women's refuge, advocating pragmatically for the needs of people with disabilities and as a TAFE teacher.

"If there was a battle to be had you can be sure Michelle was in the thick of it," Butler said on ABC Illawarra of her friend and previous campaign manager.

"If Michelle saw an injustice, she would call it out and she made us all better for it... she made me better every single day."

That impact was reflected last week in Butler's address to parliament celebrating the work of volunteers collaborating at Nowra's Sunday Community Support Group, the Nanak Free Community Kitchen and Dr Gurdeep Bagari's free healthcare clinic - a initiative that started more than a year ago.

If you don't already know about this remarkable example of care, respect and egalitarianism in our region, read on for Liza Butler's statement to NSW parliament, or watch the YouTube video record.

If only the seats in the chamber were actually filled to hear this important information.

Statement: Ms Liza Butler, Member for South Coast

I place on record my deep gratitude to three extraordinary forces for good: the Nanak Free Community Kitchen, Dr Bagari and his medical team, and Kerry Fahey from the newly named Sunday Community Support Group.

Every Sunday from 4.00 p.m. until 6.00 p.m., they offer free medical care, free food and free clothing. But, more than that, they offer dignity, a welcome and hope.

The Nanak Free Community Kitchen draws on the powerful Sikh tradition of langar: the idea that all are equal and welcome at the same table.

Week after week, I see that value lived out in real time on the South Coast—a hot meal served with respect, a friendly word and a seat made ready for whoever walks along the street.

No-one is judged; no-one is shamed. People are seen and, most importantly, they are heard.

Alongside that meal comes care of another kind.

At the clinic, Dr Bagari and his team do what medicine is meant to do: meet people where they are.

From a blood pressure check that averts a crisis and a script filled, to a wound cleaned – and quiet reassurance for someone who has put off seeking help for too long because they were worried about the cost or did not know where to start – Dr Bagari's team provides compassionate, practical and free health care.

The Sunday Community Support Group, led by Kerry Fahey and Emma Perez, offers clothing with dignity.

Coats, shoes, children's jumpers, blankets, towels and non-perishable food are all selected with care. People leave better prepared because volunteers match items to need.

Kerry and her team are organised, generous and effective.

I am drawn back Sunday after Sunday because of the people I meet.

They are people who would never seek me out for assistance. I go to them.

I sit. I talk. I gain their trust. I have sat with men and women—but mostly women—living in terrible circumstances simply to keep a roof over their head.

I have spoken with people doing it tough in co-living arrangements that are unsafe or unfair. I have also assisted with lease agreements, lease issues, tenancy concerns and homelessness.

These are people who, through no fault of their own, have found themselves in a crisis that they never could have imagined.

In this humble space, there is time to listen. The work done between 4.00 p.m. and 6.00 p.m. every Sunday does not end at the door; it opens the door to the next step.

Members know that the great challenges of our time—housing insecurity, family violence and the rising cost of living—cannot be solved in two hours on a Sunday afternoon.

But the solutions we legislate work best when they are knitted into the fabric of real places, by real people with real relationships.

Compassion is shown and lives begin to turn a corner through the Nanak Free Community Kitchen, Dr Bagari's medical clinic and the Sunday Community Support Group.

When we lift up the people doing it toughest, we do not just change one life; we strengthen the whole community. 

When families are housed and fed, kids learn better, local shops see steadier trade, and our hospitals and police face fewer crises.

Early help prevents bigger harm, builds trust between neighbours and turns support into a ripple that reaches every street.

Backing those with the least makes all of us safer, stronger and more hopeful.

I will keep returning to the community kitchen on Sundays, because that is where compassion looks like service, and that service builds a better South Coast.

I thank them all and commend their work to the House.