Phil Tudor volunteers at Newbury Soup Kitchen as our graphic designer. He was one of our first clients in the Soup Kitchen when we opened our doors in January 2017. At the time he was homeless himself and living in a car park. He is now housed and building his life again. This is in his own words his story of his scrape with "Modern Day Slavery".

Many clients struggle working with Universal Credit. One client has been sanctioned for not contacting the relevant department when he went into prison. He did not know and none had told him he had to organise this.

Thursday (4th) night was a very busy night; 52 people attended so probably the second or third busiest session in the two and a half years we have been open. This week we tried a new main course and came up with the idea of Ham, Egg, Chips and Beans. So keeping it simple....

Local companies support us all the time, and The FlowerPot Cafe are no exception. Unfortunately this week they were broken in to and our charity pot emptied. We wish to say thank you to people who have gone into the cafe, bought a coffee to support them and donated money for the Soup Kitchen.

We are planning to open on a Wednesday to provide a basic drop in with tea coffee, pot noodles and to provide advocacy. Please email volunteer@newburysoupkitchen.org.uk for an application form and volunteer guide if you would like to help. The ability to write letters and make phone calls on behalf of clients will be required.

In this weekly update, we discuss domestic abuse: a third of domestic abuse victims were men, and only approximately 1% of refuge beds in England are reserved for men.

Unfortunately a client had an epileptic fit towards the latter part of the session. It went on for quite a long time so they slept afterwards for a while. One of our volunteers dealt with him initially as they saw it start and guided him onto the floor so he would not hurt himself.

The relationship between homelessness and mental health can be complex, where one can be both the cause and result of the other. Unsurprisingly, people without a safe and secure home to live in have high rates of poor mental health.

This week we went to Pitch to the Panel in the Corn Exchange, funded by Greenham Trust. A doctor and specialist from the hospital explained about fatty liver disease. Alcoholism is very common with many of our clients. We find it very distressing to see how the symptoms of alcohol cause such destruction to the body.

We are delighted to report that our new van has arrived, kindly donated by Swift Couriers. This should prove extremely useful, not only logistically, but in terms of advertising and fundraising too. So huge thanks go to Adrian and the Team at Swift.