The Scouts had attended the Australian Scouts 26th Jamboree from 6-15 January.

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Always up for a challenge, Coffs Lions began preparing in November 2024.

“The ordering of food, storage and delivery options, assembly of the product and delivery on the morning of the event, took many hours of discussion and liaison with local and interstate companies,” Coffs Lion Rosemary Hansen told News Of The Area.

“My house was full of boxes and looked like a removalist had delivered here.”

All was proceeding quite well until they received the list of food allergies, “287 of them”.

These included gluten free, vegetarian, vegan, halal, pescatarian and more.

The word went out to our members to try and bring along a friend on Wednesday to help prepare the meals.

Over the two days of preparation and delivery the volunteers included Lions Club members, friends, work colleagues and Sapphire Beach mahjong players.

“We had 20 people over the course of the day at my house,” Rosemary said.

“We began at 9am making the wraps of ham, cheese and lettuce.

“It was a long hot day, but we finally finished at 6.30pm.”

All the meals were packed into large boxes donated by Bunnings and stacked into four cool room trailers donated by Faircloth and Reynolds and Master Hire.

“We were up at 4.30am on Thursday, hooking up the trailers and at 5.15am, in the unwelcome rain, we headed off to Coffs C.ex International Stadium to prepare for the onslaught of 61 buses.

“The stadium staff provided gazebos and tables for us and helped us set up ready for the day.”

The first bus to arrive was 40 minutes early at 6.20am which set the preparing team into a scramble.

“The Scouts got off the buses, half went to the bathrooms while the rest came and collected their meals.”

Back on their buses, the Scouts continued their journey home to Victoria, a travel time of 23 hours.

The volunteers took a break, tidied up, sampled the wraps then delivered all the leftover food and drinks to Pete’s Place.

The effort was supported by The Provedores, Master Hire Coffs Harbour, Faircloth and Reynolds Coffs Harbour and Bunnings Coffs Harbour.

By Andrea FERRARI