Have you ever wondered what happens to the donations you give us? Whether it be food, clothes, toiletries or money. Well here are a few things that we do to give you an idea of where they go….
Money:
Money donated allows us to keep our doors open to clients. Money gifted to us goes to cover our running costs including specialist support staff, hall hire, phone, internet, insurance and services! To run Camrose purely on a Tuesday and Thursday costs around £37,000 a year. If you are a UK tax payer, then we can claim an extra 25% Gift Aid on your donation too! Without cash donations we would not be able to run our service.
Clothes and shoes:
Clothes are given mainly to our homeless folk. After a hot shower they can put on fresh clothes and feel really clean. We go through a lot of underwear! Mainly boxers and socks. As we are coming into winter, joggers, t-shirts and hoodies will be in demand alongside winter coats, beanies and thinsulate gloves.
Good shoes, boots or trainers are given out too. Our clients do a lot of walking. It’s surprising how many miles can be covered when walking to appointments, to the Camrose or to see friends. Coupled with the fact they are worn 24/7 it doesn’t take long (especially in wet weather) for clients to go through a pair of shoes.
Toiletries and towels:
Similar to above our toiletries and towels are used mainly by homeless clients in our shower. We also make hygiene packs with travel sized items for clients to take away. Sometimes a vulnerably housed person may need some toiletries to tide them over so we give them full sized items.
Food items:
Food donations are divided up and either go into our ingredients cupboard, fridge or freezer (for making hot meals), or if suitable, they are put into homeless food packs.
As we come into the winter we are cooking lunches such as cottage pie, curries and casseroles. We will often also make a hot pudding such as a crumble or a pie with custard. We try to make our meals nutritious and hearty; filling and delicious! We are in the fortunate position to have a freezer so we can take donations of fresh meat.
If there are left overs from lunch we give takeaways to rough sleepers who may want a meal later in the day.
Food pack items include things such as small bottles of water, juice boxes, crisps, cereal bars, chocolate bars, cuppa soups and pot noodles. If we have a spare thermos flask we make sure they have it filled with hot water which the client can take with them.
Finally… Items we sadly can’t take:
We hate to refuse a kind offer! But we do sometimes get offered items which unfortunately we just can’t take due to lack of demand and lack of storage. These include:
- Duvets
- Bedding
- Clothes for elderly people (most of our clients are aged 30-50 so clothing needs to be practical for their needs)
If you have any items you think may be suitable for us please do get in touch!
For our latest Wishlist please check our Facebook page or our web page here!
