The ACT has the country's second highest homeless rate, with almost four in 10 homeless people unable to find affordable or appropriate accommodation in Canberra.
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Canberra has just shivered through a record-breaking run of consecutive freezing mornings, and a group of local teenagers are using a bit of people power to ensure up to 200 homeless people will not go without a meal or some warmth.
The community initiative comes as Homeless Persons' Week nears its end on Sunday.
Up to 60 young people between the ages of 12 and 18 will gather at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Garran on Saturday where they will make 200 litres of Italian vegetable soup and bolognese as part of a church-led project helping the homeless.
The meals - which will feed about 200 people - will be frozen and donated to the Red Cross Roadhouse Service. The group is also organising a blanket drive.
Youth leader and Young Men's president Sean Kikkert said the project was an important way of encouraging young people to give back to the community, while also raising awareness about homelessness.
"This is a really good way for the youth to be aware of the needs of the homeless, to interact with them," he said.
"We wanted to do an activity to help them recognise the dignity of homeless people, to treat them as people."
More than 1700 people in the ACT have experienced homelessness, according to figures from Homelessness Australia.
The data estimates about 62 per cent stayed in supported accommodation for the homeless while about 18 per cent stayed with other households and 16 per cent in severely overcrowded dwellings.
The majority of homeless people in the ACT were between the ages of 25 and 44 while around 16 per cent are under the age of 12.
