Slabs for Heroes was born in the 2019/20 bushfires to support the Rural Fire Service, but its mission did not end when the flames were extinguished. Today, it is embedded in humanitarian work: helping food pantries, relief charities, families in crisis, and victims of domestic violence.

“The need to help hadn’t gone away — and our supporters were keen to step up when needed,” founder Roseanne Howes said.

“Canberra is such a generous city. I don’t think a lot of people in Canberra realise how many people are affected by not having anything to eat, not being able to put fuel in the car, keeping kids at home because they don’t have anything to put in their lunch box.

“I don’t think we actually fully comprehend, because Canberra is so affluent that we think everybody’s OK. But when we do ask Canberrans to step up, they’re there straight away.”

During the Black Summer, Slabs distributed electrolytes, water, and hygiene and health packs to RFS units. Ms Howes and her allies worked up to 17 hours a day for five months, packing supplies for firies, first responders, containment crews, welfare organisations, and affected community members.

“We were swamped with people that wanted to help,” Ms Howes said. “Thousands of people came from everywhere. Sydney trucks were coming down like it was bigger than Ben-Hur. Nobody ever anticipated it…

“We developed such a good network, people knew that if they donated any financial assistance, it went where it was supposed to go. We didn’t want to lose the benefits of it.”

Today, Slabs supports 10 organisations — including the RoseBush Street Pantry and Pam’s Pantry in Ngunnawal, the Inner North Pantries Network (Ainslie, Braddon, O’Connor, North Lyneham, and Watson), and HelpingACT. Recently, they helped seven families set up new homes with furniture and food.

“We’ll get it done,” Ms Howes said. “Slabs fills the gaps. I’m the sort of person that if somebody asks me for something, I do it; I get in and I get it done.”

When women and children fleeing domestic violence are placed in ‘safe houses’ that lack blinds, secure doors, or working appliances, Slabs can put a call out and furnish the house quickly. Community members will provide furniture or white goods from their garages.

“We’re watching people coming from very volatile, very traumatic situations … but then being able to turn that into a home is amazing,” Ms Howes said.

If street pantries run low, Slabs sets up food drives outside shopping centres, which can bring in 30 to 40 trolleys’ worth of groceries.

Volunteers hand out shopping lists at the entrance; many shoppers often buy everything on the list. One young man even asked Ms Howes to fill an entire large trolley, and paid for the lot.

Shoppers tell Slabs volunteers: “We’ve been waiting for you to be here again; we’ve come back here because we know you’re here.”

“That’s really heartwarming; we’re getting people who trust us,” Ms Howes says.

“I’m really proud of what we do. I’m proud that we have the reputation that we can ask, and people come together.

“People came to us because they know that if they asked for something, it happened. They support us because they know that the furniture, clothes, nappies, food go where they are supposed to go.”

But the system itself needs reform, Ms Howes believes. The community sector — whether government-funded or volunteer-run — is overwhelmed. Support agencies are understaffed, and cannot keep up with demand. The public housing system is pushed to the limits. Refuges and shelters lack basic maintenance. Too often, she thinks, governments commission inquiries and feasibility studies rather than acting.

“We’re finding it frustrating,” Ms Howes said. “We love to help and to do what we do, but we’re wondering why the end-to-end process seems to go round and round.”

She calls for an umbrella organisation: a collective where small organisations can work together, fill gaps, and respond quickly without bureaucracy or ego.

In her opinion, 80 per cent works well, but the 20 per cent that doesn’t is where traumatised people can fall through.

She wants a model where proposals are scored and implemented based on impact — not debated for months — and an interim agency that can assist people through short-term crises.

She also imagines a co-op stacked with healthy food and cooking appliances. It would be accessible, so people without cars or public transport can reach it easily; open late, so they do not have to visit food pantries at private homes; and it would teach disadvantaged and homeless people how to cook filling and healthy meals.

Slabs for Heroes will hold its next food drives at Coles Amaroo and Coles Dickson in the lead-up to Christmas.

“We don’t want the public to feel like they constantly have to help,” Ms Howes said. “But we want them to know: when we do ask, it’s because the need is real. And when people step up, it changes lives.”