Food Bank, Soup Kitchen and Rough Sleeper Assistance 

August - October 2017 - Getting Prepared For Winter 

Next month, as the darker, colder nights creep upon us, we will be once again serving nutritious meals from the community shop with the Autumn Soup Kitchen we run 3 evenings a week through till November when our Winter Soup Kitchen runs 4 evenings a week until the end of February 2018.

This proved to be a growing need last season and still spoken about by our service users of last season and even new service users who have heard of our all round assistance from those we have helped before and/or other organisations or agencies we network with or are aware of the services we provide.

• We provide 3 courses, soup, main meal and desert along with hot drinks, juice and biscuits.
• When first contact is made, we have rough sleeper packs providing the essentials such as layers of clothing,thermals, underwear, socks, flask, wind up torch, towel, hand warmers, emergency foil blankets, toiletries & wash kit and all weather jackets if needed which all goes into large traveller backpacks along with a sleeping bag.
• During the winter we find the guys need supplies replacing more often due to the weather so always keep a stock of those basics throughout the year. 
• Advice, support and guidance is on hand at each session and of course every day via phone or walk in.

We liaise with housing at TDC, Porchlight, local police and PCSO's and any other agencies relevant to the client.

Even those in local emergency accommodation are living without even shared cooking facilities, making eating and budgeting extremely difficult

Clients are allowed use of our microwave during opening hours for meals and snacks we have donated or they manage to purchase, making eating a hot meal cheaper than takeaways and just that little bit healthier.

This is often mentioned by our service users, especially our guys who strictly budget each payment, counting every penny to make sure it lasts and provides them with the bare essentials to keep them going with eating and drinking out the biggest costs where they have nowhere to heat food.

 We are fully insured and hold the following;

~ Full public liability, employee and indemnity cover
~ Food business registered
~ Health and Hygeine Lelvel 2
~ Food and hygeine safety at work Level 2

~ Trained by the National Center For Domestic Violence (NCDV)

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Our government should be helping to prevent any further rise is homelessness and looking at sustainable options for our council's to essentially SAVE, not only public funds/tax payers money from both national and local budgets but also other valuable resources that are already affected by massive cuts to their sectors such as the NHS, the police, drug and alchol services, social services and other agencies that deal with the effects of homelessness and could be vital in the prevention of homelessness and domino effects leading to such hardship which in turn can cause mental health breakdowns, depression, anxiety, the large amount that turn to substance miss use..

Mental health services we assist are stretched with cuts to their services yet have heavier case loads than ever, especially the crisis team, with a sharp increase of clients needing support after hitting rock bottom with financial hardship.

The battle East Kent Mental Health Crisis team and us as referrers face when we have service users in need of that specialist emergency assistance is that if the they have no address then they are unable to carry out their visits to provide the community care daily through the crisis period.

We need government funded temporary accommodation solutions that are far more cost effective than bed and breakfast for example, costing around 4 - 5 times as much as local authority allowance per person, per night/week/month than a fixed tenancy.
Funding for supported accommodation/hostels for those with special needs, mental health poblems or that are vulnerable and need help settling into the community.

The big challenge we have for rough sleepers is helping those growing numbers of clients we help classed as 'intentionally homeless' which has seen us see a good and have not been taught how to manage this even if the client had the smallest amount due to be paid when told they are to be evicted, such as with one of our families with a disabled baby girl whose property was being sold or if you cleared an over due balance before eviction date, regardless, your council can label you as 'intentionally homeless' due to our government legislation set in time for the cuts adding to.the crisis, making it easier for councils to refuse assistance, turning people away and within their guidelines unless you are deemed a priority need due to pregnancy or serious illness in which case you are granted support with temporary accommodation but for a limited period.

We can't blame our local council however, when they are totally restricted to run by government legislation.
With our government's legislation sweeping their own crisis under the carpet, the steep rise of local and national homelessness this last 12 - 18 months is above and beyond that of the previous year which saw its sharpest rise in official homelessness in decades. 

Join our #HouseOurHomeless Campaign.

One of our big concerns is the amount of single women homeless and rough sleeping along with the rise in males.

** We offer advocacy for those needing extra support through their situation.

Look out for our leaflet later this week to share on, our wishlist of needed items and more information to come on our website including a new feature to help us help us those who cannot reach us.
- We will have a 30 second form online to fill out to report new sightings of rough sleepers in the next 24 hours.

 ** EDIT - Form is now live

To report rough sleeper sighting or if you are rough sleeping and need assistance, please click on the link below;

www.thanetfamiliesinneed.co.uk/Rough-Sleeper-Assistance-Form.html 
- All new sightings will also be forwarded to the the managers of housing options and the TDC community safety team aswell as Thanet's Porchlight outreach worker we liaise with.
www.thanetfamiliesinneed.c o.uk/ Housing---Homelessness-Support.html

Preparing for our 6th winter which is already around the corner when we see less day light, changeable weather with night time temperatures starting to fall, we are bracing ourselves to be able to supply the demand and need of those needing this vital lifeline of support during one of the toughest situations in a person's life that no modern day government from the richest so called 'civilised' countries in the world should allow.

I can't tell you how much every contribution matters right now, with so many more people in hardship this summer, more than we have ever seen for the warmer months with a growing trend of more working  poor coming to us for food bank. 

To keep up this demand we need your help.

Words can't express how grateful we are for all your support so far, now serving the people of Thanet into our 6th year with this past summer, the busiest yet with such an unexpected rise in demand and referrals for food bank assistance which we are desperately running low on, with stocks going down so quick, easily emptying out store room in 2 days to be replenished and continue that cycle,the   we are now trying to source more contributions from more local supermarkets to keep stocks maintained but also trying to source more nutritional, fresh food for our service users facing hardship and in preparation for the restarting of Autumn Soup kitchen, apart of our homelessness assistance, another huge area of need we are supporting which is, yet again, a growing demand that before the cold creeps back and rough sleepers need far more support, we are making preparation for. 

6th Thanet Winter Warmth Annual Campaign

Winter is creeping right upon us and this is the time when those struggling financially are going to be restricted even more with fuel costs and knowing that many of the house's in Thanet especially in the private rental sector are not the best to say the least with retaining heat we are here to help ease the 'Food or Fuel' for our 6th Autumn/Winter Season,set to be the most challenging in generations for many families with more than 2 children and those paying things like bedroom tax out of their minimal budget especially, not to mention price increases of late.

We will be getting this year's campaign going slightly earlier as we expect to see a rise in numbers of people needing this assistance, alongside the trend we have seen through the summer months this year of unexpected growth in demand for food bank assistance, mostly due to the new benefit cap placed on families with 2 or more children, the implementation of Universal Credits, higher rents, higher fuel bills and a rise in the cost of living.

K eep an eye out for updateshttps://fundrazr.com/campaigns/e1Gjnc/register