Grants tangled in red tape

LINDSAY and Robyn Burch have applied for one government grant in the 23-year history of their Havafeed charity at Mermaid Beach – and aren’t rushing to do so again.

“If you apply for a grant, you have to ask for a lot of money and then they say you now need (to employ) a social worker and then it’s an administrator,” said Robyn, who along with her husband has never drawn a wage from the not-for-profit organisation.

“They say, ‘You’ve got to do this and you’ve got to do that’ and that means the money is almost gone before you get food to the people.”

You Have A Friend founder John Lee said the majority of government funding tended to be awarded to a handful of large organisations such as The Salvation Army.

“What annoys me is when those large organisations then send people to me,” he said.

“They tell people they don’t have food so go see John Lee at You Have A Friend.

“I went to them once and said, ‘You guys get big money from the government, stop sending people to me’.”

As for applying for his own grants?

“I was once given $2000 for fuel by the (Tweed) council and I really appreciated it but the red tape was a nightmare,” Mr Lee said.

“I know why they have to do it but you have to spend a week just trying to sort it out.

“You have to employ people just to do that. I choose not to take money ... (and) just end up doing it myself.”