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Centrepoint is the uk's leading charity for homeless young people. it supports more than 10,000 homeless 16-25 year olds into a home and a job every year. centrepoint works directly in london, manchester, yorkshire and the north east of england, and partners with other organisations across the uk. we also influence government policy with the overall aim of ending youth homelessness.

Sharing is Caring is a food service that serves students nationwide with the intention to expand internationally. The program’s focus is to identify area needs for food requirement amongst students first and utilise resources to satisfy those needs in order to eliminate hunger in our student community. We operate within the Welfare Office at our partnering universities so as to limit abuse of the service. Students are encouraged to volunteer in every aspect of the food service as voluntary work experience is highly recognised and preferred by many employers in varying sectors. It is deep sadness that we have identified a large community of students who do not eat on an average day to day basis simply because they cannot afford to. It is our intention to operate a warehouse facility at every university and college in the United Kingdom where we will store donated or rescued food for distribution to students. The program actively solicits food from retailers, wholesalers, and processors. In addition, we plan to collect food donations from restaurants for immediate distribution to service programs. It is estimated that the number of students who need services from us will increase during the next five years as the cost of living increases. Though there are a number of food banks available countrywide, there is that element of embarrassment that a student has to overcome to approach them. It is with this in mind that we are providing a more specific service solely for students. It is within our plan to have a smart phone application that allows students to indicate their need and desire for food. Sharing is Caring is therefore an important resource because we can respond quickly with the one of the most important resources these students need. Food! Our services help to improve the wellbeing and welfare of students and assist greatly in achieving goals that have been set. We know that our service is a small investment with regards to the influence hunger has on our health, however, it must be implemented as the cost of ignoring the problem regarding student hunger could possibly be detrimental in the long run especially in the face of rising university costs without added incentives. We all know that “hungry” should never be a pronoun for “student”, however; today sub-standardisation of this matter is a reality for some.

We run two projects under the banner of The Everlasting Foodbank. Our foodbank is for people to receive emergency food in times of crisis or need. We also give people clothing, toiletries and a friendly face to chat with. Alongside food we encourage people to sit with us and chat over some coffee/tea and buiscuits. Sometimes we find that we can be the only people that someone talks to that day. We have been well supported by the local community who find us to be reassuringly approachable. Up to today we have fed over 1600 people after opening for just about 4 years. The hope and aim is to be able to be a resource for the community and help people with their immediate need but also help them to recover from their current crisis situation. We have recently launched a community cafe. This helps people in need (those who would qualify to use the foodbank) with free hot food made by our team of volunteer chefs. There is encouragement of socialising between cafe users and similar to the foodbank we have people who will sit and talk with users. The cafe provides job experience for those who use the foodbank by letting them volunteer in the cafe itself. This greatly helps to move people from reliance on foodbanks to get back into work. Alongside the cafe we also provide a one-to-one drop-in centre for help and signposting.