Food charity moved on for Vivid Sydney says change will impact years of service at Martin Place

Australia Broadcast Center

23-05-2025

A food charity for the homeless community and those in need says it will be forced to move from its years-long home due to the upcoming Vivid Sydney festival.
Alfresco Community Kitchen — which is based on Phillip Street near Martin Place in Sydney's CBD — was informed by the City of Sydney council via email on Monday that it wouldn't be able to serve at its usual location during the time of the festival.
The 2025 Vivid Sydney festival begins on Friday and is scheduled to operate until June 14.
It is the first time Vivid has included Martin Place in its programming since 2018, with a slate of events and lighting displays planned.
Carly Hall, an organiser with Alfresco Community Kitchen, said the email also included a map with a suggested alternative "blocks and blocks away".
The council later confirmed those locations included nearby Hyde Park, but Ms Hall said even a short move would be effectively impossible to communicate to those who rely on the soup kitchen with very little notice.
"With no way to get this information to our rough sleeping community, I don't know how they expect us to distribute this information that, 'Hey, as of tomorrow, we won't be serving where you usually get a meal. But hey, like blocks and blocks away there might be another option'," Ms Hall told 702 ABC Radio Sydney.
"While we could serve somewhere else, these are people who for years we've served at the same place at the same time, people without reliable communication.
Alfresco has been serving in Martin Place for more than four years.
Ms Hall said the group was planning a limited service to show up for those in need, but some of the city's suggested locations likely wouldn't be suitable as "thousands of people are going to be using them as a thoroughfare for Vivid".
"The community we service aren't going to want to be where tourists are," she added.
In a statement provided to the ABC, a City of Sydney spokesperson said that due to safety reasons, operators and vehicles not associated with Vivid would be turned away from Martin Place.
"It is a devastating reality, but declining the state government's request to host Vivid in Martin Place won't end the food security crisis," the spokesperson said.
Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the city approved the state government's request to use Martin Place in April.
"Rather than having known regular users of Martin Place show up and discover these barriers themselves, we tried to contact as many as possible," Cr Moore wrote on social media.
"For this charity, we suggested alternative nearby service delivery locations such as Hyde Park."
The lord mayor pointed to the City of Sydney's $1.5 million in annual spending on food relief and other support to address homelessness.
"The City works tirelessly to meet all its responsibilities — providing more food relief and homelessness support than any other council, and providing sites for community events like Vivid, which are also really important," Cr Moore wrote.
Acting CEO of Destination NSW, Karen Jones, told ABC Radio Sydney the agency has had approval for using Martin Place for Vivid since April, and that it was up to City of Sydney to engage with the community kitchens.
"We are absolutely open to continuing to work with the City of Sydney to come to a solution and to try and resolve the situation," Ms Jones told ABC Radio Sydney Breakfast.
"We recognise and we deeply respect the work of Alfresco Community Kitchen."
The NSW state government did not immediately reply to the ABC's request for comment on the matter.
Ms Hall said this was the first time her organisation — which budgets for between 150 and 200 meals per service — had been moved on due to Vivid and had usually operated as normal throughout the festivities.
The kitchen is on hand with dinner every Tuesday and every second Saturday.
"Everyone is just passing the buck," she said.
"It's just frustrating, deeply frustrating."
According to federal government data, there were 24,469 people in NSW who sought specialist homelessness services in July 2024, a monthly figure that has gradually crept upwards since 2017.
Food insecurity also remains a consistent issue in the state.
According to food charity Foodbank's data, 28 per cent of people in metropolitan NSW were considered food insecure in 2024.