We have run out of Thermos flasks, bike locks and bike lights. All three items are essential. Every street homeless person relies heavily on their flask. For them, hot water is essential to keep them warm and for a hot drink. Bikes are a lifeline to get them back into employment and to make them more independent.

We now have the facility to help people get photo ID's and birth certificates. For some they have nothing, it could be that they have lost their ID moving around so much or it has been stolen. Without ID it is impossible to get a bank account and benefits or work.

The Community Furniture Project have a couple of thousand bikes a year go through their work shop. They repair donated bikes or bikes they have purchased and sell them on or donate them to vulnerable people. We are very excited by our new relationship with The Community Furniture project.

We are looking for mentors for some of our clients but please be prepared to commit, long term. With time and the right support they become more independent and need you less but they know if necessary you are them to support them. That means a lot to someone. It is very frustrating at times but incredibly rewarding.

Our food bin at the Co-op on Brummell Road, A4, Speen is not producing much in the way of donations. The staff at the Co-op are an amazing support to the Soup Kitchen. We cannot feed our clients without good donations.

This week we were visited by Ali Monjack of That's Thames Valley TV. Broadcasting on Freeview channel 7, That’s Thames Valley TV is the home of local news and classic television for the region. A great piece that demonstrates the work of the Newbury Soup Kitchen and how the service is appreciated.

One of our volunteers was concerned this week about a particular client who was so lonely and upset. The volunteer commented a wonderful thing. "Do you read? If you do, then you always have a friend". So true. We do give out books and they seem very popular. We would love some books to keep our small library going.

There was another new lad too. He is in his twenties all alone. He had a good meal. We gave him a tent, sleeping bag, flask and various other amenities. He was shocked at how kind we were. We will get to know him and hopefully start to work with him and try to help him over the next few weeks.

What a beautiful day! The temperature affected the numbers this week. We had 26 clients in which is one of our quietest weeks. Nevertheless no less challenging. Today we had jacket potatoes with beans or chilli and apple crumble and custard. We catered for forty so had loads of food left over. Mencap had a[...]

We had 40 in this evening, considering we were five volunteers down for various reasons. There were no major incidents and actually everything ran smoothly. Having such a large amount of volunteers to call on allowed us to sort out cover quickly. Jan's Specials You may have seen on Facebook that our graphic designer (who[...]