A city centre kitchen and drop-in centre supporting Newcastle’s most vulnerable and often homeless people has been given a pre-Christmas boost by a housebuilder.
Formed in 1985, People’s Kitchen serves over 250 hot meals a day to the people who need it most in Newcastle, from its base at Alison Centre off Bath Lane, near St James’ Park stadium.
Newcastle-based Bellway has provided enough ingredients to feed hundreds in the city after the last-minute postponement of a corporate event led to staff at the company wanting to support a charitable cause with the catering which would have otherwise gone to waste.
The managing directors of both Bellway’s North East and Durham divisions – based in Gateshead and Houghton le Spring respectively – visited the People’s Kitchen to drop off the food supplies, as well as providing a financial donation towards buying fresh meat to complete the meals before they are cooked and served to the public.
People’s Kitchen also acts as a drop-in centre for vulnerable, homeless or recently re-homed people to collect everyday items including clothing, toiletries and mobile phones.
Jackie Brodie of People’s Kitchen, said: “The People’s Kitchen would like to thank Bellway for this kind donation. Christmas is often a hard time for our friends who use our service.
“As we have no government funding and are run entirely by volunteers, we rely on the kindness of North East businesses. A lovely meal was cooked and served by our volunteers to 230 people using this kind donation.”
Bellway’s donation of food provided a bulk of key ingredients to make both a vegetable curry and a traditional Mexican chilli dish. The housebuilder has also offered to support People’s Kitchen further by providing building maintenance to the premises at Alison Centre in Newcastle.
Natalie Perry, Home Exchange Manager for Bellway North East, said: “It felt very humbling to hand over food to People’s Kitchen knowing that it will go some way to supporting those who need it most before Christmas. We were able to learn more about the services offered by the volunteers in Newcastle and were blown away with the amount of work that goes into the running of the centre.
“Unfortunately we had to postpone a company event at very late notice, so we then had the idea to donate the food from that event to support local people and we’re really pleased to know that this will be going to an incredibly worthy cause – so much so that we’ve agreed to continue our support of People’s Kitchen by putting our expertise into practice with building maintenance work to its existing premises in Newcastle city centre.”
Bellway North East is building new housing in Newcastle and across Northumberland, while Bellway Durham is building new homes in Teesside and County Durham.
For more information on the work carried out by People’s Kitchen, or to support the organisation, please visit https://peopleskitchen.co.uk/.
For more information on Bellway, visit https://www.bellway.co.uk/.
CAPTIONS:
- Jon Horan, Managing Director of Bellway Durham, Natalie Perry, Home Exchange Manager for Bellway North East, Jackie Brodie of People’s Kitchen and Bellway North East Managing Director Tracey Brady at People’s Kitchen in Newcastle, with food donated by Bellway to support the most vulnerable people in Newcastle.