Pudding a town on the map – Fr Mac’s heavenly legacy

Sydney
15 December 2002

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Pudding a town on the map – Fr Mac’s heavenly legacy

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Pudding a town on the map – Fr Mac’s heavenly legacy

Pudding factory volunteers with Max Hogan (at front) and Frank Parker (striped shirt)

By Marilyn Rodrigues

It’s time for the annual Fr Mac’s Heavenly Puddings Christmas appeal to begin in parishes around the country.

And parishioners at Our Lady of the Rosary, in the northern NSW town of Alstonville, hope sales of the famous puddings will enable them to send a large donation to a Jesuit contact in Zimbabwe to feed starving children in the Binga district of the Zambezi Valley.

Puddings have already been used in drought relief hampers for Australian families this year.

Fr Darcy McCarthy’s pudding recipe remains a secret.

However, Beverley Crethar, the Heavenly Puddings factory co-ordinator, says: “In these days, when volunteers seem to be a dying race, to my mind the special secret ingredients are the people involved.”

The factory employs five paid workers.

Most of the workers are volunteers who wrap and pack the puddings and make up cartons.

You may already know Fr Mac’s story.

Fr Mac was the first parish priest at Alstonville.

He cooked a few puddings for the struggling parish’s cake stalls. They were so popular that he began to cook hundreds, then thousands each year in his presbytery kitchen to meet demand.

The money raised went into building and maintaining the parish and school buildings. At the same time, the work forged a strong community spirit.

By 1990, production had reached 45,000 puddings a year.

Fr Mac died in 1991, but the parish continued to make his famous puddings which, by now, were being sold all around the country.

The proceeds still assist the parish school, St Joseph’s, and selected charities.

And about $15,000 worth of puddings is donated each year.

Regular beneficiaries include the Wayside Chapel, the Sydney City Mission, Centacare, the Lismore Soup Kitchen, St Vincent de Paul Society, Richmond High School fundraising for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome research and local care groups.

The parish’s social justice committee identifies other causes for one-off assistance including:

• Money for the villagers of Kumasi in Ghana to sink a bore for fresh water
• Shipping a landmines photographic exhibition to Alstonville which raised $3000 for a wheelchair factory in Cambodia
• Funds to relocate five families of landmine victims to new homes
• Donations to Makumbi Home and Zambuko Children’s Home in Zimbabwe
• Puddings to the Interfet forces in East Timor for Christmas 1999
• Donations to the Aid to the Church in Need Timor Appeal and Fr Chris Riley’s Youth Off The Streets program, with the help of Sydney partners

Most of the work at the factory is done by older parishioners.

They are continually amazed that such a little thing as baking and wrapping puddings together can bring fun and meaning into their lives and life to others.

Max Hogan, the factory steward, says that he discovered the pudding factory in his retirement.

“I found a group of very committed people who were there to help realise the dreams of ones not so fortunate,” he says.

“I threw my hat into the ring to see what I could do to help.”

Enduring bonds of friendship form amid the hard work and chatter, he says.

And “when one is confronted with photos of more than 40 children from Africa who have already died, or are dying, from starvation or AIDS, the pudding packing takes on a whole new meaning”.

“When one sees photos of a well with fresh running water being pumped by young children, the first such water they have ever seen, the inconvenience and work of the pudding factory fills one with pride.

“All I say is ‘thank God for the pudding factory’ which gives me a chance to do something I would never have done otherwise.”

Another volunteer, Frank Parker, says the workers are often a mixed group.

“There are the kids who help out until the bell rings for school, and those who are in their 80s and still going strong,” he says.

“But the underlying factor which is most evident is the comradeship that exists.

“There is great support, not only for each other but those less fortunate.

“Sometimes the old back aches or the legs may get a bit stiff and sore and it is good to see the last pudding wrapped and packed.

“But, when you think about it, those who spend some of their time at the pudding factory receive all the benefits: the opportunity to do something worthwhile, have fun and make new friends.

“To my mind it’s the best social club in Australia.”

To buy one of Fr Mac’s Heavenly Puddings from Sydney, Tel: (02) 9349 3066 Ph/Fax (02) 9349 214; or contact the factory, Telephone: (02) 6628 5474 Fax: (02) 6628 3077; Email: fathermc@nor.com.au; Web www.fathermac.org.au