A good session this evening. We had 42 people in and everything seemed to run pretty smoothly.
We had turkey, leek and mushroom pie (one of the turkeys donated to us Christmas Eve from Aldi). It went down a storm. We are committed to working with donated food so some weeks it will be interesting to see what we come up with. Meat donations are few and far between due to transport reasons our end (refrigeration) and the supermarkets storage of out of date “use by” date food. We hope to find a way of having some of the supermarket meat donations, perhaps someone with a refrigerated vehicle could help us for pick ups. It is something we need to look into.
Food Collections
Kat and Samantha came in at 5.15pm to meet each other and to work out arrangements to pick up the Pret donation each week. What a joy! Kat had purchased some trolleys. They are going to sort it out between themselves each week. Great to have a support network like them now with Pret and Lorraine to help with Greggs on the A4. It all makes such a difference.
Hair Cuts
Karen came in and cut loads of people’s hair. She has definitely been missed. I did threaten to put a ribbon in Mathews hair this evening as it had got so long.
Happy Birthday
It was actually Tim’s birthday so we sang happy birthday. It is amazing how far Tim and his girlfriend have come over the last year or so. We have known them both now for four years. It is great to see them more settled and no longer rough sleeping.
A New Job
Toby has a job at local hotel. One of our other clients has been working there a few weeks now and has introduced him He is washing up in the kitchen. There is no accommodation at the moment but hopefully that will change. Wengave him a push bike this evening kindly donated to us. He was so pleased with it. He is sofa surfing at the moment and we know it was a long walk to work. Fingers crossed he sticks to it. He really has come out of himself this last couple of weeks. The prospect of work and hopefully accommodation has lifted his spirits so much. The homeless community try very hard to help each other out. The fact they are introducing each other to work is fantastic.
Not Well
One of our older rough sleepers came in this evening. He has not been well and has lost weight. Even though he does not like using charitable services and mixing with others it was good to see him in the warm and eating.
Sleep Out
There’s talk of a ‘Solidarity Sleep Out’ on 1st March. We’ll bring you more details as we learn more.
Playing Games
Brilliant to see People getting so involved with their game of connect 4. They are getting too good for each other. Anna, as promised I took the picture from your good side.