Food Parcels

So aswell as the food we take out every Thursday on our outreach we are also always desperate for items for our food parcels-to some of these guys these can be life saving.

When we manage to help our guys get off the streets they have to get used to living in a home. So we always like to set them up with most of the items they would need to fill their cupboards in the bathroom and kitchens and help them really get settled into their home.

Also once in their homes they might be struggling from time to time so that’s another reason our food parcels can really help.

For these, we rely on the kindness of others to donate the much needed items that we put together that really do make all the difference.

We appreciate all donations and are always in need of donations for food parcels that include:

Tins of food
Dried items
Biscuits and crackers
Pot noodles
Packets of food
Puddings
Cereal
Crisps
Dilute juice
Sauces
Toiletries
Cleaning products
Toilet rolls etc
Even if people were to buy just one item on every shop it would soon add up #homelesstreetangels

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Awards

Welcome back to the Homeless Street Angels Blog! As you know from the last blog post about the Yorkshire Choice Awards, we had been nominated for Local Fundraiser of the Year and one of our younger volunteers was nominated for Young Achiever of the Year. One of our Co-Founders Becky Joyce was also nominated for Most Charitable woman of the year and the outstanding chairty award at Simply Ladies inc. Also last year Becky won Volunteer of the year at the Yorkshire Choice Awards!

 

We won!

 

Local Fundraiser of the Year – Homeless Street Angels

At the Yorkshire choice Awards, Homeless Street Angels won the award of Local Fundraiser of the Year! None of this would be possible without our amazing team of volunteers and also all the amazing donations we get all of the time!

Young Achiever of the Year – Naomi Joyce

At the Yorkshire Choice Awards one of our younger volunteers, Naomi Joyce, was nominated for Younger Acheiever of the Year. Unfortunatley she didn’t win, but she was a finalist. In our eyes Naomi will always be a winner, she does lots of work fundraising at school for Homeless Street Angels, helping her mum cook alot of the weekly meals we take out on the streets every thursday and also comes out to feed the homeless occaisonally. She is only 11 years old!

Woman of the Year – Becky Joyce

At the Simply Ladies Inc. Awards, One of our Co-Founders was nominated to win Most Chairtable Woman of the Year and Outstanding Chairty Awards. Although Becky finished as a finalist in both these catergories she didn’t win. However, the people running the show had organised for becky to be the special winner of an award that hadn’t been up for nominations or votes… WOMAN OF THE YEAR! Our whole team believe this is an amazing award and Becky was the perfect lady to win! She works tirelessy to help the homeless, going in between jobs to visit them , take them to appointments and stock up there houses with furniture and food when they are rehoused. She also makes 80 meals a week to take out every thursday! I could sit and list all the amazing things that becky does but I would be here all day!

Without everyones continued support and amazing donations we would not be able to help the homeless the way we do! We would like to thanbk everyone for there help in getting to where we are and we hope you carry on this journey with us!

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An Average City Centre Thursday Night

The days leading up to Thursday night

On the week leading up to a Thursday night, there is lots of preparation to be done…

First things first, we have lots of generous donations to go pick up from people. We then take these donations and sort them into different bags ready for Thursday nights. We use large IKEA bags to separate the categories of clothing such as women’s tops, men’s jeans, blankets, dog coats and lots more.

On Wednesday night begins the prep of the meals, we take out around 100 meals a week, so that’s a lot of prep.

The Day of Outreach

Each Thursday we have lots of work to do before we go to the city centre in the evening.

One of our volunteers makes 20 litres of hot drinks every week. She makes hot chocolate with hot milk, and the homeless love this and we run out of quickly every week. She also makes coffee, tea and brings extra water for things such as cuppa soups and pot noodles.

A few of our volunteers help to make the food as we have lots of meals to make, so all the cooking has to happen on Thursday to ensure it’s nice and hot when it gets to the homeless.


A few of our volunteers help to make the food as we have lots of meals to make, so all the cooking has to happen on Thursday to ensure it’s nice and hot when it gets to the homeless.

Once all the food and drinks are prepped and packed its time to pack up the cars and vans full to the brim with clothes, toiletries, food and much more

On the night

At around 7pm the team begin to arrive at the meeting point, with cars full of donations. We unpack the cars into trolleys on the street ready to set off around town. We also pack sandwiches, cold drinks, crisps and snacks into snack bags so they are easy to give out to our homeless friends.

We have started to get some of the homeless coming and waiting for us at the meeting point, all excited for their hot food and drinks.
Once we have served all the homeless at the meeting point, we begin our regular route around the city centre.
The homeless begin to know where we are going to be at what time and we have regular people come to see us at certain places. This means we have begun to build good relationships with some of them and learn more about their pasts.

By the end of the night we have usually run out of all food, hot drinks, sleeping bags, tents and much more.

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Yorkshire Choice Awards

Last year, Becky Joyce, one of the directors of Homeless Street Angels was nominated and won the award for Volunteer of the Year at Yorkshire Choice Awards.

This year as a charity we have been nominated for Local Fundraiser of the Year at the Yorkshire Choice Awards

Also Becky’s daughter, Naomi Lister Joyce has been nominated for Young Acheiver of the year

We would really appreciate if as many people could vote for both Homeless Street Angels and Naomi Lister Joyce in the Yorkshire Choice Awards.

Simply follow the link below:

https://www.yorkshirechoiceawards.co.uk/votehere

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Homeless at Christmas

We help the homeless throughout the year but Christmas is a particularly hard time for our homeless friends. As they are sat on the cold ground watching everyone buying their loved ones gifts it can make them feel even lower.

This is why we try to make Christmas an extra special time of the year and pull out all the stops to ensure they feel loved.

So as you know we had a santa sack appeal and collected gifts, wrapped them and bagged them up in Santa sacks ready to take out and deliver to our homeless friends.

On Christmas eve we headed to the streets of Leeds to hand out the presents to all our homeless friends and also give them a hot Christmas dinner.

All our homeless friend were so happy to get the presents and a hot Christmas dinner and they still are talking to us about their presents they received.

On Christmas morning one of our amazing volunteers was up at the crack of dawn to start cooking lots of breakfast sandwiches to take out to our homeless guys. She also took out waffles with maple syrup, selection boxes, homemade gingerbread men and lots of hot drinks.

Our homeless friends were so happy to wake up to a hot sandwich and lots of goodies!

Helping our friends at Christmas is very important to us and we want to make it as special as we can for them!

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Santa Sack Appeal – On The Night

To start the night, we had lots of amazing donations ready to sort and wrap for our homeless friends. From men’s and women’s gifts to lots and lots of chocolate! 

We started by sorting all the donations into boxes of different categories: men’s, women’s, chocolate and hats, scarves and gloves. Throughout the night, people brought more and more donations so these boxes were nearly overflowing by the end of the night. 

Small groups of people took a box each and began wrapping all the presents for our homeless friends. 

Women’s gifts

The boxes of presents by the end of the night were full to the brim and ready to be transferred to the santa sacks and go out to our homeless friends on Christmas eve.

Raffle Prizes

Throughout the evening we were also selling raffle tickets for all these amazing prizes, generously donated. From a GHD hair dryer to 2 vouchers for dermaplaning, there were lots of exciting prizes to be won!

As we had lots of kids helping us at the event, they all helped to make cute handmade Christmas cards for our homeless friends. 

All the kids also helped on the bake sale, to sell all the beautiful cakes, buns and biscuits that some of our wrappers had brought and donated.

The whole night went amazingly! We couldn’t have asked for better support from donators and helpers and we can’t wait to give all these amazing gifts to our homeless friends on christmas eve.

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Helping our friends get off the streets

So many of you know us for what we do on the streets for our homeless friends but it doesn’t stop there – that is just the beginning, our long-term goal is to get our friends off the streets and in a home of their own and help them to rebuild their lives. This takes a lot of hard work and dedication. 

Firstly we need to start with housing options and getting them in the system and making sure they keep up with their bids week after week. 

Before…

Once getting there properties we need to make the extra touches and make it a home. That’s when all the appeals go out and loads of pickups and collections. We then work our magic and give them something to be proud of but it still doesn’t stop there. 

After!

The support is needed now more than ever – help with sorting out bills , paperwork appointments food parcels and just a friendly face so they know they are not alone without everyone’s help and support we wouldn’t be able to continue to do what we do and change lives

As well as amazing donations of essentials for our friends on the streets, we rely on generous donations of things for the people we help to rehouse.

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£5 Survival Bags

Now that the winter months have arrived and the nights become colder, our homeless friends will continue to live on the streets until we can help them to their forever homes.

At times through this winter, you will probably walk/past/cycle one of our homeless friends, and they will likely need a friendly hand at some point! If you want to help but don’t know how, here is a quick way you can help this winter, for under £5! 

You can create a Survival Kit, to keep in your handbag, backpack, car or your desk at work! All you need is a zip-lock freezer bag and some of the below items…

£5 Survival Kit

Socks – 50p 

  • 5 pairs can be bought at Primark for £2.50, making 1 pair only 50p

Gloves – £1.00

  • 2 pairs can be bought at Primark for £2.00, making 1 pair only £1.00

Hand Warmer – £0.50

  • 2 pack can be bought from Halfords for £1.00, making 1 warmer only 50p

High Calorie Chocolate Bar – £0.25 

  • e.g. Yorkie, Snickers or Twix – 4 packs available at any Pound shop for £1, making each bar only 25p

Tissues – £0.16

  • 6 pack can be bought at Boots for £1.00, making 1 pack only around 16p

Baby Wipes – £1.00 

  • £1 from any Pound Shop

Plaster/Bandage – £1.00 

  • £1 from any Pound Shop 

HOMELESS STREET ANGELS CONTACT INFORMATION 

  • We have emergency call out numbers that our homeless friends, or you, can call. Include our information on a piece of paper in your survival kit. 

Total = £4.41

Please keep a look out for our homeless friends this winter and think ahead for them, no one wants to be out in the cold!

*Please remember to always call an ambulance if emergency medical care is required*

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Homeless Doggies

So as many of you know, dogs are a man’s best friend… this is quite literal on the streets. As many of our homeless friends have doggie friends. 

Every week when we go out to feed our homeless friends we also, take food and clothes out for their furry friends. We are always in need of dog food, treats and coats. 

Although these canine companions often have a thick fur coat, they can also get cold living on the streets. A jumper, coat or blanket for a dog can keep them cosy and stop them from becoming poorly. 

Watching the pups eat there food up is amazing they are always so grateful for anything given to them. We take dry biscuits, wet food and treats out for the dogs.

A few weeks ago when we were out on our usual Thursday night we spotted one of our regular dogs. The beautiful doggie spotted us straight away and was so excited to see us. As always we were armed with food and treats for animals.

These dogs provide companionship, protection and love for our homeless friends. A lot of the dog owners describe having a dog on the streets as having a constant friend looking out for you. They look after the dog through the day and the dog looks after them and protects them through the night so they can try get some sleep.

If you are able, please donate to these beautiful pups. Have an old doggie jumper or coat, rehome it to one of our homeless dogs. Going to get your dog a packet of treats from the store? Pick up an extra pack for a dog without a warm home.

These four-legged friends are just as important to help as our human friends, so please donate if you can.

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Rememberance Day

Sunday 11th November is a day where we all remember, appreciate and respect those that lost their lives at war. Sadly, it will come as little surprise to you that many of our homeless friends, were serving men and women at some point in their lifetimes.

Whilst we wear our poppies to commemorate the brave and lost, we must also remember those men and woman still serving today and those no longer serving, but forever changed by their experiences.

Some of our friends suffer from addictions and conditions that have resulted from their years in the forces, and we hope to support them to eventually get them into their forever homes.

We will continue to feed, clothe and house our homeless friends, but if you do know of a veteran who is homeless, or facing homelessness, please refer them to the Royal British Legion.

The Royal British Legion take an active role in trying to prevent homelessness amongst the Armed Forces and will be happy to take your call on 0808 802 8080.

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