Lou - Operations manager

It all started with a young man and his dog. He used to sit on the bridge in Newbury. I used to go into town most Thursdays. One day I asked if he would like a hot drink and bacon roll, to which he replied yes, please. Most Thursdays after this I bought him that and he was incredibly grateful and would chat about his life and dog. My twins were with me one day and they said that we should not leave the dog out we bought a bone, hot drink and roll that day 😂. I then explained to them about homelessness and people less fortunate than us, they wanted to invite the man back to our house so that he was not so cold.
From that day on I wanted to do more. Everyone deserves to have someone to look out for and care for them, someone to help them and guide them to make better choices.
I did some research and found the impressive Newbury Soup kitchen. I could not volunteer at the time as my twins were still at primary school. So, I decided to help in another way. Every harvest festival from that year on we did a collection at Enborne primary school and donated the ‘bounty’ from the harvest collection to Meryl at the soup kitchen. I did this every year for about 4 years; my sister has now taken that role. 
I was furloughed Jan 2021 because of the pandemic and my twins started secondary school in September 2020. The position then came up to help on Friday mornings to help empty and re/stock the vans and general help out at the HQ and I jumped at the chance. 

I’ve been volunteering now for nearly 2 years and I’m loving it. It’s fulfilling and meaningful and you meet some fabulous people. I’m just a very little cog that helps the big cogs keep turning smoothly.
If I can make a difference in someone’s life by making sure the vans are stocked with snacks, food tents, sleeping bags, thermals drinks etc that they might need to make their lives easier/better. I have achieved what I set out to do, which is to help people feel like people again and that someone cares.
My dream is to help out full time and maybe one day this will happen.