Big numbers served at Bathurst City Red Tops canteen at McPhillamy Park

Operated by more than 20 volunteers from the local soccer club, the canteen at McPhillamy Park acts as the club's major fundraiser to help cover the cost of registration fees, socks, shorts and jerseys for the soccer season.

Red Tops vice president Carol Prosser said volunteers have been "extremely busy" serving customers this week, with numbers on Thursday well beyond that of a normal Saturday before COVID-19.

"I reckon we would probably serve 30,000 people. We get a lot of people across the week, even for just a tea or coffee. Even if they have their own food, they might want something warm.

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"We do hamburgers, chicken burgers, egg and bacon rolls, all that sort of stuff. We also do salad rolls and wraps.

"It's been extremely busy for us up there. On the Thursday, it equalled to a Saturday two years ago."

The Red Tops canteen remains unchanged since it was built over four decades ago and it is used solely by the club.

"We've still got an original building from when the track went from dirt to tar. I think our building has been up there for 40 years," she explained.

"This is solely a fundraiser for the club and it does help with registration.

"We generally don't have sponsors for the club but this year we did have a few more than what we've had in previous years. But it does help reduce the registration and helps buy the jersey.

"This year we've got probably 25-30 volunteers up there at the moment."

Tracing its history back to the 1960s, Bathurst City Red Tops is one of the oldest active soccer clubs in Bathurst.

It fielded two men senior teams and one female senior team in 2022, as well as an under 6s and under 9s team.

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