
Soup Kitchen
Check out the new website; www.ealingsoupkitchen.org
Listen to a talk or watch a video of Alan's Story;
29 February 2016 Ealing Soup Kitchen
Speaker: Andrew McLeay
(Ealing Churches Worker with Homeless People)
Alan's Story
The Soup Kitchen serves hot food and drinks to the homeless and needy in the Borough of Ealing. Founded in the early 70’s, Ealing Soup Kitchen (ESK) is run by a group of local churches and is open every Saturday and Sunday, 3.30pm - 5pm, in the Church Room at St. John’s, Mattock Lane, Ealing (entrance from Broomfield Place or the church garden). Directions here.
Our two-fold mission is to:
• share the love of
Jesus through voluntarily providing hot nutritional food
for those in need in a safe, family setting;
• respectfully offer advice and a
helping hand.
Our Values are Welcome, Service, Dignity and Trust.
There is usually also a selection of
clothing and blankets available. At Christmas time we are open Christmas Eve,
Christmas Day and Boxing Day, for longer hours, and on Christmas Day and Boxing
Day a full dinner is served.
Between
60 and 100 clients visit Soup Kitchen each day it is
open.
The Soup Kitchen helpers are
volunteers, recruited mainly from the churches involved in the scheme:
St. John’s, St. Stephen’s West
Ealing, St.Paul’s Northfields, St. Mary’s South Ealing, Haven Green Baptist
Church, Hanwell CfCM, Ealing Abbey, Ealing Christian Centre and Hope Community
Church. Most teams welcome volunteers from other parts of the borough to make
up teams on each day of approximately 10 people.
There is a strong link between the Soup Kitchen and St John’s Café Church run on a Sunday evening, with many members of the worshipping community at Café Church coming from the Soup Kitchen.
The
Soup Kitchen and Hub are supported by Andrew (Macca) McLeay, the Ealing
Churches Worker with Homeless People (ECWwH). The role is
funded by a number of the churches and other donors to
provide practical, pastoral, housing and administrative support as well as
befriending clients and organizing special
events.
ESK’s target for funding is £20,000 per annum which includes both the employment of the ECWwH and a contribution to the costs of operating the Soup Kitchen and the Friday Hub.
ESK is a registered
charity no. 1152247.