Growing kindness amid the darkness

Tonight, about 42,000 children in Australia will have no secure bed to sleep it, and mostly no bed at all. There will be the adult homeless, too, finding security in the dark where they can. They need food as well - good food. And there are people who feed the homeless, or those simply in need.

Anne Pratt is manager of HOME in Queanbeyan, a loving place for men and women who have mental illness and can't live independently or may be at risk of homelessness. It's 100 per cent self-funding, relying on donations. The units are self-contained, but the volunteers at HOME cook for the residents too.

Look and you will find so many places that provide food for the homeless, like St Benedict's Community Centre, a cooperative initiative of Christian Churches in Queanbeyan who give meals and food parcels; breakfast at the Uniting Church Northbourne Avenue Canberra or Blue Door Drop in Centre, Campbell, or Stasia's Soup Kitchen in Garema Place, and many many more across Australia. OzHarvest is now Australia's leading food rescue charity and has delivered more than 100 million meals to 1300 charities across the country, food that might be wasted at home, food that can't be sold by business.

And business charity is wonderful, generous. But as Anne Pratt says, so often what is given are sweet treats, not the fresh, healthy foods that are vital for homeless or mentally ill people. Whatever fresh fruit or veg you can give it, the volunteers will cook, making the delicious meals that are so badly needed.

What can your garden spare? Even a single cauliflower is welcome, or the bag of apples that needs a bit of trimming before they can be stewed, or the 3482 zucchini lurking at the bottom of the vegie patch. No matter how much you give, or how little, it will do good.

You might even grow more veg or fruit especially to give to one of the centres that cook meals for people in need. Plant an extra 30 silver beet plants, so that you can give 20 bunches of silverbeet each week. Put in an extra 20 parsley plants - parsley can be added to almost any savoury food to add goodness. Never think ''what will I do with all the plums?'' - gather them and deliver and think of the satisfaction as they are accepted and eaten.

Perhaps schools might like to take up the challenge to grow food for those who need it, too. It is a way of teaching kids that so many are in desperate need in our society, but also a way to teach them that we all can find ways to help, like with a crop of tomatoes, or spinach, snow peas, ''cut and come again'' varieties of broccoli (it is the perfect time to plant them now) or planting a fence of apple trees, some for each kid to take home but also some to give away. Plum trees, pear trees, apple trees, those delicious small hard mangoes that grow so easily in frost-free areas.

Whatever grows well and easily in your area, whatever you know you can grow and give away- please plant. And please give. Even a single bunch of rhubarb, once a week, will mean stewed rhubarb to make a dish of porridge more tempting. A bucketful of home-grown strawberries will be aromatic luxury. It doesn't have to be much, nor regular, though 'lots and often' would be wonderful.

Literally, wonder filled. It is so easy to forget those in need. It is so easy to think the problem is too big for any one person who isn't either extremely wealthy or in politics to help. But we can help, even if it's just a bunch of basil once a week from the pot on the windowsill, and just maybe a few roses. As the old song says, 'give us bread but give us roses' too.

And in times like these, when the violence and tragedy in the news seems overwhelming, many millions of small kindnesses add up - and make a difference.