Advice needed please on food for homeless

98sidney

Hi whilst there is the odd few that are drinkers, please bare in mind they do that for one to blank out their situation and 2 it helps them stay warm.. A very big majority who we have helped have had a normal life and through no fault of their own have been forced to live on the streets..

We do sandwiches as we like to know they will have some breakfast.
We do soup and we do hot drinks..
and we do one hot meal a night..
but we found we was serving roughly the same food, so thats why I asked on here and with all the suggestions we will be able to vary or menu weeks..

Thanyou again to all that posted..

Wow so many suggestions and thanyou to all that have replied

ceridwen

You might be interested in reading the website of the American group "Food not Bombs" - as they go out giving away food.

Specifically, their recipe page is:

http://www.foodnotbombs.net/bookrecipes.html

sparklylime

Well done on the work you do, I bet it is really appreciated by all those who need a good meal to keep them warm and fed.

Have you thought maybe curry? This can be cheap to make and bulked out with potato, tomatoes, sweetcorn, peppers etc. It can be quite waming too! Or chilli again can be be made to go a lot further by adding cheap vegetables. My other idea was cottage pie, you could add tinned tomatoes, mushrooms, frozen peas etc to make the meaty bit go further.

I have worked in a supermarket where the food going out of date that day was donated to the a homeless charity. The only things not donated were 'high risk' products such as raw chicken. You could try asking again but stress you would happy just to take the 'low risk' products such as vegetables, bread, dented cans etc.

Hope this helps )

98sidney

Thanyou will ask the supermarkets again..

We have a nice chilli going out tonight for them as well as sandwiches..
I have listed all the menu ideas that you have all given me and will be trying afew of them strating from next week..

Yes we are welcomed once we have gained their trust and the homeless look out for eah other so word does get around that we are there to help and nothing us..

And yes it does give you such a great feeling when you cook a dish and you know its going to feed 20-30 homeless people..

Thanyou again to all that replied..

organic_wanabe

I have a friend who does this in Edinburgh with the Bethany Trust. They only take hot soup and buttered rolls. They also take some dog food as they found that a number of the homeless people gave their roll to their dog. I think they go out 363 days of the year, missing out Christmas night and Hogmanay. People such as you must make the winter a little better for them and give them something to look forward to on a long cold night.

Jammygal

Mappygirl wrote: »

Hi, firstly just wanted to say well done on doing something to help the community.

Sandwich and soup might be a good option. The people your feeding may not be that hungry when you see them so at least with sandwichs they can take them and eat them when they wish.

I would agree with this. I used to do a soup run in London and we took sandwiches and soup which went down very well. Some peops would rather chat than eat food whereas others just wanted some food and no chat.
Good on you for doing something so constructive:T

COOLTRIKERCHICK

with the line of business i am in, i am fortunate i can donate clothes , sleeping bags and blankets to a charitable organisation run by very close biker friends of ours, and when ever i have gone there, they have had '27 veg soup'...lol.. meaning what ever veg they can get cheaply or free they will turn into a nice soup.

bovril goes down well too, as its hot and tasty, but the homeless also like to have some food they can 'save' for later, so sandwiches, pies, pasties, rissoles, boiled eggs etc...as some of them dont eat until the next time the soup run is around,

well done on trying to think of diff things to do...

Pennylane

Well done Sydney:A

I'm not surprised the supermarkets won't give anything away. A few years ago I was buying some veg and when I got to the carrots I noticed they really were getting past their best. I told an assistant and she started picking through them and I said if I bought the damaged ones would I get them a bit cheaper. They were for our horses. She said "no way" and all their bruised fruit/veg etc just went straight in the bin. :mad:

Seems daft to me but there. :rolleyes: Actually it really IS daft because I have seen people picking through a skip at the same supermarket and taking it.

Larumbelle

I used to pick through skips when I was 16 and homeless, although not on the streets. Tesco called the police on us and started to pour bleach over the contents of their wheelie bins, and while I know they can justify it I still believe it was morally reprehensible. When the manager of Waitrose caught us, on the other hand, he was upset and arranged for us to go and help ourselves when they closed at 8pm before it went in the wheely bin. He also got me a job through his rotary club contacts. I dread to think where I'd be now if it wasn't for him, he almost certainly changed the course of my life. So I think a lot depends on the supermarket, and the manager, so if I were you I'd keep bugging them until someone listens.

I think it's such a wonderful thing you're doing. If there are local food manufacturers or distributors near by it is definitely worth asking them if they can help. When I eventually got to the giving end rather than the recieving end the charity I worked with used to get pallets of damaged cans from a distribution centre, nowadays they have to get stock 'turned around' so quickly that it's easier to get rid of the whole pallet rather than sort through for the undamaged stuff. Pret a manger and M&S always used to donate to us too. Also allotment associations, food cooperatives, and ask the local rotary club to ask their members, you will be surprised by how many strings they can pull.

Good luck, and I think you'll be surprised by how much you'll enjoy it. When I was in a similar boat all I wanted was for people to treat me like a human being, and it makes all the difference in the world when people just treat you normally.

luxor4t

Hi Sidney, the Soup Run DH goes out with takes soup (more about this later), some cheese and some meat sandwiches, HM fruit cake and several kinds of fruit - bananas are popular as many of our rough sleepers have few teeth, also oranges/ satsumas etc for the vitamin C.

They carry two big flasks of soup as they no longer take hot drinks, foam cups and small bags for the fruit and already-wrapped sandwiches . There is some provision for the dogs too.

The soup is usually HM vegetable but may well be fortified by meatstock, tinned soup, soup beans etc etc then blended. Some rough sleepers have asked for vegetarian soup etc hence the choice of sandwiches.

Have you asked for donations at your local market? stall holders can be very generous with bruised veg etc esp on Saturday afternoon. We don't have to do this as everything is supplied by the Chapel.

The Soup Run team is permanently on the look out for blankets, sleepingbags, or substitutes like sofa throws, thick sheets, foil survival blankets etc as well as warm clothing inc hats, gloves and socks.