The outbreak of Coronavirus has completely changed the landscape for The Passage and the people we help, just as it has for your church. In the last few weeks, we’ve rapidly adapted our services to provide an emergency frontline response.
Our priority is to ensure that homeless people have somewhere safe to stay, are well fed and do not return to the streets.
We have been very fortunate to find sufficient accommodation to make sure that people sleeping on the streets of Westminster have been offered somewhere safe to stay and almost everyone has been moved into temporary accommodation. Much of this has come from bed and breakfast hotels which serve the budget end of the tourist market. They were literally set up for bed and continental breakfast and have no proper cooking facilities.
We are all having to plan to ensure we have a reliable food supply and a balanced diet during the lock down. Homeless people face the worry every day of where the next meal will come from.
Our Head Chef, Claudette, and her army of volunteers in The Passage kitchen have created a brand new Food Hub, preparing hot, nutritious dinners, together with breakfast, lunch, tea, coffee milk, soft drinks and snacks, that are being delivered to about 320 people, seven days a week, in their emergency accommodation. It costs £10 to provide a food parcel to a homeless person and this programme will cost £300,000 over the next 10 weeks.
To help raise the funding we need to pay for the Food Hub, we have created a new campaign called Donate Your Dinner.
Now at the time of our greatest need we should be truly grateful for the support of your parish community. Could you get involved and help spread the word about Donate Your Dinner?
With most families being at home and not eating at work, school or in restaurants, we’re encouraging people to join together and share their dining experiences with each other on social media, whilst raising awareness of the campaign. It’s really simple to take part:
1. Post a photo or video of you and your family making or eating dinner together
2. If you are on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, simply post your photo and tag @passagecharity
3. Remember to use the hashtag #donateyourdinner and tag your friends and family to encourage them to join in too!
4. If you would prefer to email your photo to us, you can do this by sending it to usfundraising@passage.org.uk
5. Please pray that our homeless brothers and sisters will stay safe during this difficult period. You might like to share your prayer with us by email.
If possible, we’d also like those who can afford it to donate £10, to feed a homeless person for a day, or whatever they are able to give.
Recipe
Perhaps you would like to donate a recipe? We just need a simple meal but nothing too fiddly as we are cooking for around 320 people.
Please take a look at our website – passage.org.uk/dinner or call on 0207 592 1886 to find out more information.
