There came a point when Jenny looked around our house and the message was pretty clear.

Get this out of my house.

And to be fair, she had a point.

Nourish Street had completely outgrown our home. Food, tents, sleeping bags, hygiene products and donated goods seemed to occupy every available space. Our house had become a makeshift warehouse, office and distribution centre while somehow still needing to be the place where our family lived.

By then, Nourish Street was already much bigger than Jenny and me. When we established it as a charity, we had to have a board so important decisions were made by a group of people rather than resting with one or two. That board included me, Jenny, Peter, Sandra and Kel, and it was already in place before we ever considered moving into a warehouse.

I might have founded Nourish Street, but I never wanted it to become an organisation where everything depended on what Beau wanted. Having Jenny, Peter, Sandra and Kel around the table meant different opinions, experience and ideas could be considered when we made important decisions about where the charity was heading.

One of those decisions was becoming obvious every time we walked through our front door.

We needed to get Nourish Street out of the house.

It was not just about running out of room. As Nourish Street became better known, our residential address was becoming known too, and people seeking assistance sometimes turned up at our home. I wanted to help people, but Jenny and our children deserved privacy and security. Our family home could not also be the public address of a growing charity.

We needed somewhere people could approach Nourish Street, volunteers could work and donations could be delivered without everyone needing to know where our family lived.

We eventually found a warehouse on Kremzow Road at Brendale.

I remember walking through it and thinking how good the space could be for us. It was run down and definitely wasn't very flash, but compared with what we had been working with, it felt like a massive step forward. I could already picture shelves filled with supplies, donations being sorted and packed, and our outreach gear finally having somewhere to live other than inside our family home.

Before we could properly move in, though, the place needed some work. The kind folk from the CFMEU volunteered their time and resources to help us transform it. They ripped things down, renovated the office and gave the place a much needed lick of paint. What had looked tired and run down started to feel like somewhere Nourish Street could actually call home.

Then the community stepped in again. People volunteered their time to help us move everything out of the house, bring it across to the warehouse and get the place set up. Boxes, supplies and donations that had taken over our home finally had somewhere they belonged.

There was something pretty special about watching people come together to help us make that move. Nourish Street had begun with our family doing what we could, but here were other people giving their own time, skills and resources because they believed in what it was becoming.

And for the first time, when we finished for the day, we could close the warehouse door and go home.

I reckon Jenny probably appreciated that part more than anyone.

Not long afterwards, we leased the building next door and opened the Nourish Street Emporium. Donated goods could be sold affordably, with the income helping towards the costs of running the charity. It gave us another source of funding while creating another way for the wider community to support what we were doing.

As Nourish Street grew into its new home, the people around me became even more important.

Peter had originally become involved to help with grants for a couple of hours each week. Those hours quickly grew, and alongside being part of our board, he eventually became our Operations Manager. Peter became my right hand man, helping across grants, administration, logistics and the everyday problems involved in keeping things moving. A huge amount of what he does happens behind the scenes, and I am incredibly grateful for the commitment he has given Nourish Street.

Sandra's contribution also extended beyond her place on the board. She took responsibility for our bookkeeping, helping manage the financial administration, reporting and preparation for external auditing that comes with running a charity. It is work most people will never see, but it is essential.

With me, Jenny, Peter, Sandra and Kel around the board table, and different people beginning to take responsibility for different parts of the organisation, I was learning that I did not have to carry everything myself. I had started Nourish Street, but that did not mean I had every skill or every answer. Part of leading it was learning when to trust the people around me.

There was also a much more personal reality I eventually had to confront.

By that stage I had volunteered for around two years, often working sixteen hour days. I had poured my time, energy and personal savings into Nourish Street until there was virtually nothing left financially for me to give.

But I still had a family to support.

The truth was uncomfortable to admit. In my determination to help everyone else's families, I had allowed my own family's financial wellbeing to suffer. I had emptied my savings and given almost everything I could to building Nourish Street, while Jenny was left carrying far more of the financial burden than she should have had to.

My intentions were good, but that did not change what it was costing the people closest to me. I had become so focused on helping everyone else that, financially, I had damaged the wellbeing of my own family.

Running a charity should not mean destroying your own family's financial wellbeing in order to prove how committed you are to helping somebody else's.

After around two years of working unpaid, the board made the decision that I would receive a wage for my daytime working hours. My evening outreach would remain voluntary, as it still does. It meant I could continue doing the work Nourish Street required while once again contributing financially to my own family.

As Nourish Street continues to grow, I hope we reach a position where we can employ more dedicated staff. Volunteers will always be incredibly important to what we do, but there is only so much that should reasonably be expected from people giving their time for free. More dedicated staff would allow that workload to be shared and help build something capable of continuing long into the future.

Looking back, getting Nourish Street out of our house represented much more than finding somewhere to store donations. It gave our family its home back and gave Nourish Street a home of its own.

Nourish Street was no longer something our family had to carry alone. Other people had put their hands up, brought their skills, donated their time and believed enough in what we were doing to help build it with us.

It was becoming bigger than us.

And, thankfully for Jenny and myself it was finally out of the house.