ALDI NEWCASTLE - KINGSTON PARK AVENUE

We provide: - friendship and food, 52 weeks of a year - 200 + 3 course hot meals served at the kitchen, 7 days a week - nearly new clothing and sleeping bags - shower facilities - "Your Futures" programme to help towards independent living - Social events, which help our friends combat loneliness and isolation as well as equipping them with important skills. We have over 200 volunteers who donate their time and with no staffing costs and no government grants, 82% of all donations go to supporting our clients.

Looprun is a response division and part of an independent social enterprise. This is more than food and is part of a supportive services platform to help people get sustained in their own individual way. With up to 94% success rate and seeing once those receiving free Looprun response bags to returning to stores as shoppers with baskets full. These are the impact stories created when all come together to do good for good. Service users are signposted to Looprun mostly from referrals including professionals in social and healthcare. Looprun provides free non perishables, perishable food, toiletries, and brand new clothing to people facing a temporary challenge. Whatever supermarkets, stores, and retailers can do is turned into a grateful donation to a neighbour in need. This is a response to real people in real-time. No food is banked providing a direct in and out service. We believe if the food is stored then a person in need is not getting any food, hence we provide an instant response and instant impact service. Looprun has access to professional volunteers who carry out a confidential support service to people in need. From homeless shelters, hostels, sheltered housing, care homes, soup kitchens and schools. This is a non voucher, free and confidential service. This means Looprun can reach more people in need with food donations. Anyone that receives a Looprun bag of essential food items is sustained thus creating a loop cycle. All are invited to become part of these sustainable stories in your local community. For further information and gallery access on the impact of Looprun please visit: Website: https://www.looprun-sciv.online/

Justice and Peace Refugee and Asylum Seeker Project Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10:00 am to 2pm St Vincent’s Centre, New Bridge Street, Newcastle NE1 2TQ Justice and Peace Refugee and Asylum Seeker Project: Provides services to those in our community who are in need and continue to be in need. We have been established to support people seeking asylum in the UK who are in need or destitute. Refugees and those seeking asylum have continued to come to us in significant numbers. The Tyneside area remains a major dispersal area for the Home Office, and, with the low levels of Government support, we find that many people need the additional benefit we can offer by providing bags of food to supplement the meagre amount they receive. We have been mindful of a change in the way people are dispersed to the area and in some cases to hotels near the project, resulting in regular numbers of people presenting to us. We know from their stories and their comments that they value the project - which makes our work even more pleasurable and fulfilling. Support can take the form of a voucher to spend as they wish in a local store (Specific criteria apply to receive vouchers) as well as food/toiletry bags from the project itself. We stand ready to ensure that for anyone who has been left destitute by the state, we are able to step in and provide something which helps to keep body and soul together. We are always concerned about them and do what we can to help them and make them feel supported and not abandoned. This year we have been able to recommence our English classes. This has been possible following space initially being available in the St Vincent’s centre but also due to a large private donation to help replenish our resources. The project can also provide clothing and baby and children’s items-Clothing -bedding-prams. The project has two paid workers: Azad Hasan -Project Coordinator: azad.hasan@diocesehn.org.uk Sarah Spedding-Project worker: sarah.spedding@diocesehn.org.uk Our Volunteers, however, remain the backbone of the organisation. They support the deliveries of parcels from parishes, schools, and other places, organise the new stock and then proceed to make up the many bags we distribute every week. When we open the doors to clients on a Wednesday and Fridays, we have many volunteers ready to receive the clients and assist them with the bags and issues that they are facing and, where appropriate, signpost them to the different services. The Volunteers continue to be our biggest and best resource and we are very grateful for their ongoing commitment. The project and its clients are now served by around 40 plus regular volunteers. It has provided financial support, food, toiletries, clothing, and other essential items to people seeking asylum who are based in Newcastle and surrounding areas - people from over 30 different countries across the globe, each deserving of our warm welcome, empathy, and compassion.