Community Love — Meet Jenny Fuda (Oates)
Get to know Jenny Fuda (Oates), who has come of age in Parramatta and worked most of her life to ensure the most vulnerable in our community are not left behind.
Here’s a fact to be proud of: no matter who you are or where you come from, in Parramatta you can get every single meal, seven days a week — for free. It’s all part of an initiative Jenny Fuda (Oates) has spearheaded at Parramatta Mission, where she’s worked for the past nine years, serving 250 meals a day to the most vulnerable in our community.
As someone who was born and raised in Parramatta, with a daughter about to embark on a university education and career, Jenny works tirelessly to give back to her community to ensure everyone feels welcome and no one is left behind. While she’s watched the City rapidly grow and change in her lifetime, there’s one thing she loves that you’ll often struggle to find in other global cities: Parramatta’s got the conveniences of a bustling metropolis, but all the intimacy of a small town. To this day, she still walks down the street and says hello to the same familiar faces who have stuck around day in and day out.
Coming of age in the City
“Growing up Parramatta seemed like a big city to me, but now it's grown even bigger. The difference between now and then is just the busyness of it. It's vibrant, multicultural, there's great food — you can get pretty much everything you want.”
“Parramatta is a great community because as it's grown, it's just diversified. All the different cultures and people that come into Parramatta bring something new and make it richer overall. Working at Parramatta Mission, I've seen Parramatta grow and transform, and I love the fact that we're there for everybody in the community - as Parramatta grows, we're not leaving anyone behind because we're all part of that community."
On being part of the transformation of Parramatta
“A big part of what drives me is maintaining everyone’s place in the City as it grows, to make sure nobody is forgotten or made to feel invisible and to make sure all people still feel welcome and part of the community. Meals Plus is somewhere that people come and feel comfortable and feel at home right in the middle of Parramatta. Not many people know, but an interesting fact about Parramatta is that you can get every single meal, every single day of the week for free. I think that's a great demonstration of how all the community comes together to help everybody out.”
On finding family in the community
“One of the visitors to Meals Plus has kind of adopted me as her daughter. She's my second mum and we recently celebrated her birthday, so I bought her a cake and both of us had a bit of a teary moment. It's just nice to be part of an organisation that makes everybody feel like they're at home, have a family and they have somewhere to come.”
On opportunities for her daughter
“As a mum with a daughter who's about to leave school and embark on university and find a career, she can find all that close to home now. There’s a university here, and with all the businesses that are moving into Parramatta, it just gives her great opportunities to not have to go too far from home.”
