BLOG: Additional funding for homeless welcomed by New Beginnings

Volunteer getting ready to serve take away hot dinners

What a sweltering week! The hot weather made us all the more determined to sort out the roof on the ground floor of the Queen’s Arms which acts as a greenhouse in hot weather, and let’s all the heat escape in the winter. We’re still looking for quotes to get this work completed so please get in touch if you can help.

Welcome donations of fresh fruit and vegetables

We were thrilled this week to hear about the additional £105m that local government will receive to continue to support the homeless during lockdown. This means that our regular service users will hopefully continue to be housed safely in hotels for the foreseeable future, with a commitment to longer term solutions being found for those who need access to permanent housing.

Thanks to Reading College for the donations

Due to government guidelines, the All Night Cafe remains temporarily closed but the Community Fridge and new Clothing and Toiletry Service are both going strong. Due to the large number of donations we’ve been receiving, the team had a massive sort out this week of the clothes and toiletries we’ve received. As you can see from my video here, they’ve done an incredible job, making it really easy for guests to be able to pick out what they need quickly. Even the shoes have got size labels on them!

A big thank you to Alex from Cross Country Trains for the donations of snacks and drinks this week!

Alex from Cross Country trains dropping off donations

Also thank you to Reading College and Costco for the donations. We were also excited to be recognized by BBC Radio Berkshire as part of their 100 days of making a difference.

And as usual, thank you to our wonderful volunteers for their continued support.