Recent Work

Sunday 4th May 2025

May felt really chill tonight. We learnt that people had joined our food queue 2 hours before we arrived. When we pulled up in the van we looked over and saw the long daunting queue, to be honest with the numbers we are currently seeing, we worry about having enough food to feed everyone. But things are really unpredictable at the moment, we still manage to support and feed 177 people. We are kept busy all evening. Lots of people asking for sleeping bags and we ran out.

We watched people arrive and then walk away as they didn’t want to queue so our numbers could have been higher. Some where trying to jump the, which we closely monitor as we know others have stood patiently for a while.

We watched people queue along our van many in unsuitable clothes to keep them warm, and with unsuitable footwear, an individual arrived wearing a pair of shorts and a pair of sliders his legs and feet covered in sores he was in pain and asked for dressing, we provided clean dressing and and a tube of antiseptic cream, he tells us he’s had these sores all throughout winter, and for the last 2 weeks he hasn’t had a pair of shoes. That’s the theme at the moment so many people with infected feet, the team at St Anne’s asked us to supply socks as there are so many people with bad feet. We provided them with over a hundred pair of socks along with clean underwear. We know these will be depleted in no time.

We have not posted for a week or two, it’s just that things are busy and the demand for support is high, during the week we are out supporting the hostels and dealing with requests for support from other charities and commissioned services, in the last two weeks we have supported to set up 8 new homes with house hold items and white appliances. We have bought new, microwaves and pots, cutlery. On a Sunday we start receiving calls for support at 7am and this has been consistent.

Tonight we saw several more new faces, and several released from prison with no support, one individual took the time to thank us for being there to support and said he would receive his benefit in 2 weeks and wanted to return to make a donation, which we politely declined and told him he didn’t need to pay us.

We have continued to support the homeless breakfast club and even St Anne’s numbers are doubling and they too are seeing people with complex needs.

We learn there are no beds available in the hostels and where possible hotel beds are funded. Continue to provide our support.

Thank you to are cooks and bakers:

Catherine- Beef stew

Steve- Spicy Bean stew

Jo, Saul and Elodie- Cakes

Sharon- cakes

Linz -cakes

Jane – Sausage pasta

Punjabi Heaven- curries and rice

Singhs Dhal and Rice for homeless hostels

Amar and family for the samosas

This year we had 567 Easter Eggs donated we would like to thank everyone that supported our cause.

We would like to thank Johnson’s Hotel Linen for donating clean bedding and towel packs, which we delivered into the homeless hostels and provided to newly housed people.

We would like to thank our team in Burley in Wharfdale for making up very generously filled pamper packs , which we delivered into the ladies hostels to celebrate international women’s day, thank you to Sandra, Linz, Janine and Gill for making this possible and thank you to everyone that donated.

Thank you to the supermarkets, Morrisons, Sainsburys and M&S for donating us non-perishable food as well as surplus waste food, we know these collections are late into the evenings but we help them reduce landfill as we know there are people living in food poverty.

Thank you to Helen for donating us much needed dog food.

Thank you to Beanies Masato and Sue for supporting us for the last few months with donations of new clothes, socks and boxers.

We probably have a lot more people and organisations that we wish we could mention you all but genuinely without you all we can’t do what we do.

Thank you to the people supporting and managing our drop off points.

Thank you to everyone that sent us a financial donation.

Most importantly thank you to volunteer for giving us their valuable time.

Here’s some of our work from the last few weeks.

Team Hampers

Sunday 16th March 2025

It was a cold one tonight, thank you to Helen for continuing to provide 10 litres of piping hot soup it really helps on nights like tonight.

We had five volunteers working out of the van providing clothes, sleeping bags, blankets, toiletries and other essentials, as we knew the queue would be long.

We supported 155 people tonight, people queued patiently as our volunteers worked their way through the queue, no went away hungry we always make sure people are fed. People with homes took away plenty to cook for themselves for a couple days.

A lady visited admitting she wasn’t homeless but she couldn’t afford to pay her electric bill, just needed a hot meal.

Another lady in a wheelchair fleeing a hostile environment has ended sofa surfing at a friend’s house again she has no heating, took away a blanket to keep herself warm. We sign posted her to as where she could be supported, had she not had a roof over her head tonight we would have offered her a hotel bed for tonight.

We have been supporting an individual for some time he’s now off the streets and been accommodated, he expressed of wanting to find employment and before becoming homeless he was a tiler so we managed to find him some employment which he started this week and we have been keeping up with his progress and it’s quite humbling to watch the fruits of his labour.

This week we learnt the numbers attending the homeless breakfast club has grown up and upon visiting the resource centre we found an empty ladder, which we have filled buy increasing our breakfast food donations.

As we do every week we filled our vans twice with donations for the food bank drops.

Amazing work by volunteers that have been dropping meals across 7 days into the homeless hostels.

This week we have provided smaller items for people newly housed.

We are humbly grateful to everyone that makes each week possible:

Thank you to the LDS Church in Menston for all their help, including helping to sort donations and making sandwiches for Outreach every week

Thank you to Catherine for cooking up a hearty chicken casserole always popular with our service users.

Thank you to Steve for his amazing continued support.

Thank you to Lou for donating meat pasta, enjoyed everyone.

Thank you to Punjabi Heaven for donating an abundance of food, we were able to fill take away containers so people had meals to see them through for a few days, your support is always appreciated.

Thank you to Singh restaurant for helping us support the homeless hostels and the B&B’s accommodating our homeless community.

Thank you to Sharon and her mum for baking cakes.

Thank you to Jo, Saul and Elodie for baking.

Thank you to Penny for donating cakes and thank you to Dawn for delivering.

As always thank you to the Sharma family for donating snack packs and our first batch of Easter Eggs.

Thank you to Dharmishta, Chetan & family for donating 30 snack packs and hot meals, that our team on foot disputed to the homeless community that chose not to attend the static kitchen.

A special mention to all the supermarkets M&S, Sainsburys & Morrisons for their amazing food donations.

Another special thank you to everyone that act as our collection points.

A very special thank to the Manning Stainton team for coming out to volunteer with us tonight you were all amazing and thank you for all your support.

Team Hampers

Sunday 2nd February 2025

Several new faces visited us tonight, several of our homeless community brought along other homeless people new to our city, there is something about the homeless community and how they build up a relationship with each other and those new to the city and the way look out for each other. Some come across, with a toughness about them, but we suspect it’s the way they have to be to survive on the streets, but genuinely we see another side to them a caring side. One individual wanted all the ladies queuing to go go ahead, before he did, an extremely kind gesture, we end up saying to him he in guest there won’t be anything left for you, he said ladies first.

One individual came up to us at the end of the night, completely alone and thanked us for the kindness and compassion we had shown him.

Tonight we supported 176 people with meals, hot and cold drinks, those with homes filled their bags so the could eat for a day or two, our homeless community took away additional snacks, have later, we provided clean clothes, underwear, wipes and deodorants, it the only way our home community clean themselves with a bit dignity that they deserve.

We recognised a familiar face that we had not seen in a while, because he’s turned his life around, he’s been housed and he’s so proud of his new home, he has a girlfriend that has helped build his life, he has work that’s given him focus, he even proudly told us, he saved up and went on his first holiday, he then turned around and told his girlfriend these guys proved the best meals and he offered to pay us for a meal, would have just given it to him, but today we were a little short, his girlfriend reminded him he no longer needs our help as others needed it more, we wished him well and he thanked us for being there in some of his darkest moments.

This week we provided three single beds one to an individual newly accommodated and the other two to children so they no longer need to sleep in an over crowded bed.

We also provided a couple creates of toothbrush and toothpaste paste to a community that live in one of the most deprived areas of Leeds, as requested by local authority so they can work on oral hygiene with the youngsters.

One again we well stocked the pantry and freezers of St Anne’s so they can continue to provide a hot breakfast for our street homeless.

Two food banks supported with donations of non-perishable, tinned and packet food.

We are humbly grateful to:

Catherine for cooking the chicken stew all appreciated.

Marilyn for cooking a beef chilli throughly enjoyed by all.

Thank you to Punjabi Heaven for donating a delicious curry.

Steve for the bean stew, nice to cater for everyone.

Karen for donating some pulled pork, sausages, beef stew and a cream cake.

Thank you to Singh restaurant for helping us support the homeless hostels and the B&B’s accommodating our homeless community.

Thank to young Saul & Elodie for her lovely cakes. Working towards her Duke of Edinburgh.

Lou and Josh for coming out and volunteering and also providing bagels and cream cheese.

Thank to Katie for donating surplus food and extra pastries and cakes, we had a lot food tonight, but came away with completely empty boxes.

Thank you to Helen for donating delicious home made soup, which really is appreciated in the winter months.

A special thank you to Wakefield Street Kitchen for donating soft drinks.

We have had incredible week of donation, thank you to each and every one of you, we have received much needed food donations, clothes and monetary support. A late but a special thank you to The Otley film club for donating £200.

We are always grateful and proud of all our volunteers for their selfless service.

Can we please make another polite request in regards to clothing donations we can only take items listed on our poster, as kind as it was to receive 32 bags of clothes, only half were suitable for the people that use our services, the rest we have had to find new homes for, taking up a lot of valuable time of our volunteers, so once again please consider only donating items we require.

Sunday 19th January 2025

This winter seems to be along one, everyone just frozen but queued patiently. Lots people accommodated in the hostels and B&B’s came out to see us tonight as there is no other provision, as cold as it we still supported 157 people. The chill in the air was bitter and just standing back and watching people as they ate you could see the comfort in their faces as they ate a hot meal.

We are shortly going to run low on our sleeping bag stock so we are doing our best to only provide to those that have none, but so many people are asking for an extra sleeping so they can layer up, we just hope with what we currently have we make it for through the winter. Just having to make difficult choices. So many of our rough sleepers with angry looking sores on their hands. The team provided alot warm clothes and we returned home with empty boxes.

Telling times our tables were ladened with donations of non perishable food and again we came away with empty baskets.

Our queues are becoming longer and some of the later arrivers are put off to be the one at the end. Some try and jump the queue, the team do an amazing job to police this as we know many have already queued for an hour or two. It’s sad to hear people say the food on our table is going to run out, but we ensure no one goes away hungry as we will buy them a meal.

What else have we done this week.

Our support into the food banks continue, we provided.

We stocked up the homeless breakfast club with donations so our street homeless community can continue to receive a hot breakfast. We also provided washing powder so the guys can wash their clothes and sleeping bags.

The team continue to deliver meals into the hostels we support In Leeds and Bradford. We also provided hygiene packs to be distributed to new people being accommodated in the hostels.

We thank:

Thank you to Kirsten for cooking the chicken stew and a crumble all appreciated.

Thank you to Punjabi Heaven for donating chickpea curry and paneer wraps.

Thank you to Singh restaurant for helping us support the homeless hostels and the B&B’s accommodating our homeless community.

Thank you to Nandos for donating an abundance of chicken, which we served with chips. People really appreciate it.

Thank you to Helen for the homemade soup, it warmed people up.

A special thank you to Anna Wakefield Street Kitchen for donating us creates drinks and non perishable food.

We have had incredible week of donation, thank you to each and every one of you, we have received much needed food donations, clothes and monetary support.

Tonight we had several news volunteers, we always ask how found the night and they all said a sad but rewarding experience.

If you want to give us your valuable time as volunteer please sign up on our website.