Freezing temperatures didn’t stop thousands from heading to Melbourne’s Attica restaurant’s bake sale to raise money for the victims of the Christchurch massacre on Saturday.
New Zealand-born Ben Shewry recruited a string of established chefs to host ‘Baking for Christchurch’.
From hot cross buns to giant-sized Vegemite scrolls and croissants from Lune, some of the country’s best baked goods were on offer, with every cent going towards the Givealittle fund – a New Zealand registered charity – to support the victims and families of the Christchurch attack that claimed 50 lives.
“Lost for words,” Shewry captioned a video of the crowd.
“This is a third of the line. I’ve watched this a couple of times and it makes me cry, not in any kind of self congratulation kind of way but the kind where you feel so moved and so grateful to live in a community that has this much love and an incredible amount of goodwill and generosity.
“Our group sold over 3700 baked goods (every single piece of food we had) in 2 hours but hundreds of people who stood in the cold and the rain for hours left without tasting a single thing.
“Not one of them complained, all of them sent messages of support to New Zealand and almost everyone donated. Melbourne I know how much this support means to the Kiwi expat community in Australia and to New Zealand. We are family and I love you for it.
“To everyone who volunteered their time, their skills, their goods and their heart. I thank you. Donations are still coming in and we will post the amount we raised next week.”
The iconic bake sale also included a hugging booth featuring Hamish and Zoë Foster Blake.
“Like everyone, Zo and I were heartbroken at the events of a few weeks ago,” Hamish wrote in an Instagram post.
“We are so proud to, in a tiny way, help our mate Ben in his quest to meet a tragedy like this with a message of love, inclusiveness, tolerance and show there is far far more good in the world than bad. And what could be better than cakes and hugs.”
What absolute legends!
