Soup Kitchen Takeover - we speak to a visitor & volunteer
Posted by SOCKSHOP
SOCKSHOP recently teamed up with Manchester homeless charity Barnabus at their daily soup kitchen to provide members of the city’s growing homeless community some much-needed foot care. While we were at the event, we were able to speak to a number of people in attendance to hear about their experiences of living on the street, as well as those volunteering for the homeless charity. |
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One of these was a homeless man called Graham - also known as Grandad, due to the length of time he’s been on the streets - who talked to us about his life. Please tell us what a normal day looks like for you I’ve slept all over Manchester over the years, but at the moment I sleep in a tent close to Deansgate Locks. The group who sleeps there like the fact we don’t get any bother from others while we are there. I visit Barnabus every day for breakfast, then [my friends and I] will head onto the streets to make some money. We spend most of our time on Deansgate. At night, we will usually go to another shelter or drop-in centre to try and get some food. Depending on the day, I will visit Barnabus or Inspiring Change Manchester which helps the homeless with lots of things like that and getting furniture when they get in accomodation. They also provide support for homeless with mental health issues and they’ve helped me with that in the past. Is there anything you wish the public knew about being homeless? That we’re not all the same. People think we’re all addicted to spice and just ignore us on the street. Spice has really tarnished what people think about the homeless. We used to get called ‘crackheads’ and ‘smackheads’, but now people think we’re all on spice, but it’s not the case. We also caught up with Jaz, a volunteer for Barnabus, who has volunteered at Barnabus for nearly two years. She told us all about the organisation’s efforts to support members of the city’s homeless community. What is the best and worst thing about volunteering at Barnabus? |
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