Canberrans first met Garry Malhotra at the beginning of lockdown, when he and his family put a call out on social media offering meals for those in need.
The response was larger than they had ever predicted, still his extended family followed through and busied themselves cooking and delivering thousands of meals every night.
It was clear that there was a demand there - and a hard one to keep up with, so Malhotra adjusted his approach.
"We were not doing deliveries every day now. Instead we're delivering every Saturday with food hampers," he says.
"Each of the hampers includes long-life food and one week's worth of meals and we have volunteers driving around delivering those food hampers to the Canberra community at four locations - starting with Tuggeranong, Woden, Belconnen and Gungahlin.
"We go there for a couple of hours and we always posted on our Facebook with the location and the timing. Last week was the first day where we had a few people who were already waiting there before we even turned up."
But the Canberran isn't stopping there.
He is also in the process of fitting out Garry Malhotra - Ken Behrens Helping Hands restaurant, bar and function centre in Narrabundah. Not only will it help fund the work Malhotra does by providing free food for those in need, but it also has a fully functioning laundry and bathroom for homeless people.
"If you're going out for dinner, instead of supporting a bar - although people should still be supporting a local business - people can also support a charity organisation because as whatever profits come in will go back to the communities," Malhotra says
"And we'll be reaching out to all the corporates and government departments because we have a function room upstairs as well, so if they want to have any networking meetings or anything, they can come here for it.
"As well as this we are partnered with OzHarvest, they get around 500 meals every week from us. We'll still have access to the kitchen so we can continue our deliveries to the other charity organisations, as well as on doing our own deliveries."
This week, the community can get involved by donating to his cause.
Radio station 2CA is hosting its Classic Breakfast with Holmsey and Jen on location to encourage listeners and businesses to come down and drop off food to be used in the meals that are prepared. There will also be a free barbecue breakfast provided by The Butcher Shop and La Sable Patisserie.
On the day, any food donations are welcomed. The radio station will be there for their entire show on Friday morning. For those who want to donate money, there is a Helping Hands Feeding Canberrans page on GoFundMe.
Ken Behrens Helping Hands is at 2/61 Jerrabomberra Avenue, Narrabundah.
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