Food in the belly Jason Clowes, Kelly Burton and Nicholas Gultjaeff use the free Meals Plus service at Parramatta Mission most days. Picture: Gene Ramirez
TO go hungry is a painful way to live, Nicholas Gultjaeff says.
He has skipped more than the odd meal, living on the streets of Parramatta.
But at Parramatta Mission, Mr Gultjaeff finds food and care most days of the week.
"It begins with meals," he says, "then they help you with accommodation and personal things like showers.
"On pay day, I don't usually come but I can eat here seven or eight times a week."
If he didn't eat at the Mission, Mr Gultjaeff said he "would go without".
Another who regularly went hungry was Jason Clowes.
He has been homeless for the past year and a half but gets a meal for $2 a day at the Mission.
Sometimes that money is difficult to come by, though.
"Most people look down on you," he said.
"Sometimes I have to go and ask people for $2 and they just look at you and say no.
"I mean what am I going to do ... buy drugs with $2?"
Regardless of whether Mr Clowes has a couple of dollars in his pocket or not, he still gets a feed.
Parramatta Mission case worker Leonie Byrnes said no one went hungry at the outreach centre on Macquarie Street.
The fee is just a reason to get customers to present themselves at the check-in desk where staff can ask how they are going.
"The meals are really a small part of what we do," Ms Byrnes said.
"Meals are always the starting point, though, because they are always hungry."
It isn't just the homeless who go hungry.
A survey of Anglicare clients found 76 per cent of respondents regularly ran out of food in the past three months and could not afford to buy more.