We’ve been absolutely blown away by community generosity over the past few weeks!
We want to say a massive thank you to the everyone listed below for supporting us as we work to end homelessness.
Every donation makes a difference to the lives of vulnerable people and those who reach out to us.
The Grapes at Bamford – Helping the homeless this winter
When offering help with school lunches during October half term, customers at The Grapes at Bamford pub decided to donate £230 to us to help people experiencing homelessness in Rochdale.
As part of their Tier 3 Treats initiative, the team at the pub also donated 50p from every £2 sandwich sold. This led to an additional £55 being shared with us to support the work we do!
Rochdale Rotary Club – Spreading festive joy!
After our Head of Petrus Sonia delivered a presentation for the team at Rochdale Rotary Club in November, they were inspired and arranged a kind donation to go towards providing Christmas meals for residents living in our housing projects.
Rochdale Rotary Club temporarily accommodated Petrus at Mitchell Street Methodist Church back in 1973, so it is incredible that all these years on they continue to support our charity.
Thank you for spreading a bit of festive joy!
PossAbilities – Making Christmas possible this year
For many years, PossAbilities have carried out a Christmas takeover and pop-up sit down dinner at our Hub. This December however, as we continued to work to keep one another safe, we had to adapt this slightly.
Instead, PossAbilities delivered preprepared Christmas meals so our service users could still have a nice festive dinner!
We handed these out for free at our Hub in December. Here's Housing First Project Worker Louise helping to prep them!
Thank you to PossAbilities for their continued support.
Euro Options – The gift of giving
People experiencing homelessness or those in housing need often go without over the festive period; some may not even have shelter from the harsh cold on Christmas Day.
But thanks to Rochdale based IT hardware distributor Euro Options’ kind donation of £650, we were able to put together 73 Christmas presents for our service users to help bring them a little cheer this year.
Soopa Doopa – Staying warm this winter
The lovely lot at merchandise distributor Soopa Doopa sent us some takeaway mugs which we used at our ‘Winter Warmer’ event to share warm stew with rough sleepers and people using our services in the lead up to Christmas.
We served the warm meal with festive cheer, alongside mulled fruit punch and mince pies at the Hub.
Lloyds Bank – Double the donations, double the support
The staff at Rochdale branch of Lloyds Bank have fundraised for us as well as donating a lot of warm winter clothing. The bank will also match their fundraising amount!
The clothing shared will help keep rough sleepers warm as they experience the winter weather while living on the streets.
Holy Family School – A little goes a long way
A massive thank you to the children and staff at Holy Family Roman Catholic Primary School in Rochdale who organised a fundraiser to raise money for our charity.
The children spent two weeks selling Christmas lollies and raised an amazing £185 to support the work we do! They also donated some hats, gloves, scarfs, and socks for our service users.
The Jolly Carter – Making this season a bit more jolly
Thank you to the Jolly Carter pub in Middleton for donating hats and scarves kindly knitted by their regulars. These will be really help protect our service users from the cold!
Community Warehouse – Acting together to support rough sleepers
We were amazed to receive 7 boxes at the door of our Hub from the Community Warehouse.
Four were filled with short date food that we distributed immediately to people in need at the Hub, and the rest included some lovely Christmas items and personal hygiene/sanitary products that we shared with our service users.
Community Warehouse is a new central food collection and distribution hub in Rochdale for charities and grass roots organisations, run by Action Together. A big thank you to your teams!
Jalalia Jaame Mosque – Amazed by community generosity
We have also had a massively generous donation from local mosque Jalalia Jaame Mosque. More than 100 families and students from Rochdale Islamic Academy signed up to take part in their food drive, which they organised to ensure no one goes hungry during the ongoing pandemic.
Their volunteers dropped off boxes and boxes of food that we will use to prepare meals for rough sleepers and those in housing need at our Hub, as well as residents at our housing projects.
We’re amazed by the kindness of their donors and volunteers who will have made a significant different to keeping vulnerable people in Rochdale fed this winter.
Councillor Faisal Rana – Continuous care and support
We want to thank Councillor Faisal Rana for his continued support in once again donating 50 blankets for rough sleepers to keep warm during the winter. He and his wife dropped off the donation for the third year running with woolly hats too.
He said: “Doing this is one of our favourite parts of the year, we’re grateful knowing we will pass the items onto those most in need.”
Clock Tower Café – Not letting anything go to waste
With Rochdale Town Hall closing for a major refurbishment, The Clock Tower Café based there donated their excess stock to us. This will be used in our residential projects and helped as part of our Winter Warmer event back in December.
H&T Pawnbrokers – Christmas collection makes a difference
We also had a donation organised by H&T Pawnbrokers in Rochdale during Christmas week! They dropped off a lot of warm clothing collected by customers and staff, and did a collection of traders on Yorkshire Street which led to a large contribution of ham and turkey for the Christmas dinners we made for residents.