COFFS Harbour Uniting Church has quietly provided community support through its soup kitchen for 30 years, and will now be more identifiable thanks to a colourful mural on the building façade.

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The Soup Place, or Soupie as it is colloquially known, provides free lunches to the community five days a week from 12:30 to 1:30 each day, and has operated continuously through the pandemic restrictions by converting to a take away style of delivery.

Co-located with the Uniting Church and Lifeline on the corner of Vernon and Gordon streets, the Soupie has been a very low key but important community institution over the years.

Soup Place co-ordinator Phil Crofts told News Of The Area, “We felt that the exterior of the building was a bit uninteresting, and wanted to find a way to increase awareness of where we are and what we do, and the mural idea was born out of this.”

Local graphic artist Alison Fidge of Owl Design contributed the artwork concept which has been painted by Coffs Harbours own Open Studio, depicting motifs that resonate with the work of the Soup Place, celebrating volunteers, fellowship, inclusiveness and food.

The Soup Place receives no funding from any level of government and is made possible by the generous donations of local supporters and is staffed exclusively by volunteers, providing support for local people in need.

By David TUNE