Our history
It started with one man who had been there himself
Ian Schaffa was homeless at fifteen, sleeping on trains for the best part of three years. He found his way out through martial arts and went on to fight professionally. Then he went back.
- 2009
A bag of clothes, and a queue for aftershave
Ian took unwanted clothes down to Woolloomooloo and was shaken by how many people were there. When he sprayed some aftershave, a single-file line formed for a turn. He kept coming back, first with supermarket sandwiches, then pizza, sitting and eating alongside people rather than serving from behind a table.
- 2015
Street Buffet becomes real
With co-founder Joce Santa Maria, the idea took its name and its shape: everyone brings a plate and everyone sits together, the way you would at Christmas. It was registered as a charity the same year. Thirty people came the first week. The next week, sixty. Then a hundred and twenty.
- 2016
Sixty volunteers, and a Christmas for 320
The team grew to around sixty regulars, the youngest three years old and the oldest in their seventies. At the Christmas service that year, 320 people were fed, with the then NSW Premier among the volunteers on the table.
- 2023
Maroubra opens
A second service launched outside Ian's gym in Maroubra, meeting a different need again: more women, more single mums, more families caught between rent, fuel and food. The aim, as Ian describes it, is to give someone one hour of optimism a week. Fifty-two hours a year.
- 2025
Maroubra service concludes
After two years, the Maroubra service ended in June 2025 due to funding and capacity. Thank you to Ian's gym, the volunteers and everyone who showed up there — the need does not go away, and it is one we hope to return to when we can.
- Now
One table, every Sunday, 100,000+ meals
Woolloomooloo, week in and week out. The hardest part has never been the cooking. It is not knowing whether the food and the volunteers will be there. That is exactly what the needs board on this site is built to fix.
