Souper Saturday
Donation protected
http://soupersaturday.org.uk/
Edinburgh is blessed with many free and cheap food services, however in addition to the food Souper Saturday seeks to provide a warm, friendly and informal environment where adults who are homeless or are otherwise vulnerable engage in social interaction and can, for a few hours, relax and feel safe and warm. Guests can play board games and have a chat for five or six hours. This is as important as the food because social isolation is a major problem associated with poverty and whilst there are other services in Edinburgh which provide food for people in need, there is a lack of drop-in services where people can meet and socialise, especially at the weekend.
In addition to a hearty breakfast, sandwiches and a two course lunch we provide food items for people to take away: from small items such as fruit, crisps and sandwiches which are available to everybody every week to food parcels consisting of non-perishable items designed to feed an individual or a small family for a few days.
Souper Saturday has an excellent core team of volunteer support workers who have experience in their fields (including social work and housing) which means that the service has recently been able to encourage people who have more complex support needs to join the volunteering team. Initially this has been guests who have expressed an interest in helping out and takes many forms from service users setting up the tables for ten minutes in the morning before sitting down and enjoying their day to a full day's commitment helping to prepare food in the kitchen. This has helped to increase the confidence and sense of responsibility amongst those who take part and we receive very positive feedback from people who choose help out.
Volunteers sit with guests and have a friendly chat over tea but can, if requested, chat in a private room or refer service users on to other agencies who offer more specialist support. The service seeks to foster an informal and friendly atmosphere.
However all of this costs money and the current economic climate means that we are noticing that more and more people are in need of help esulting in our costs increasing steeply over the past year - a small donation would be incredible and would mean so much to us - we spend every penny on providing ervices for our guests: we have no employees and no money goes towards admin - everything is done by our fantastic volunteers.
Edinburgh is blessed with many free and cheap food services, however in addition to the food Souper Saturday seeks to provide a warm, friendly and informal environment where adults who are homeless or are otherwise vulnerable engage in social interaction and can, for a few hours, relax and feel safe and warm. Guests can play board games and have a chat for five or six hours. This is as important as the food because social isolation is a major problem associated with poverty and whilst there are other services in Edinburgh which provide food for people in need, there is a lack of drop-in services where people can meet and socialise, especially at the weekend.
In addition to a hearty breakfast, sandwiches and a two course lunch we provide food items for people to take away: from small items such as fruit, crisps and sandwiches which are available to everybody every week to food parcels consisting of non-perishable items designed to feed an individual or a small family for a few days.
Souper Saturday has an excellent core team of volunteer support workers who have experience in their fields (including social work and housing) which means that the service has recently been able to encourage people who have more complex support needs to join the volunteering team. Initially this has been guests who have expressed an interest in helping out and takes many forms from service users setting up the tables for ten minutes in the morning before sitting down and enjoying their day to a full day's commitment helping to prepare food in the kitchen. This has helped to increase the confidence and sense of responsibility amongst those who take part and we receive very positive feedback from people who choose help out.
Volunteers sit with guests and have a friendly chat over tea but can, if requested, chat in a private room or refer service users on to other agencies who offer more specialist support. The service seeks to foster an informal and friendly atmosphere.
However all of this costs money and the current economic climate means that we are noticing that more and more people are in need of help esulting in our costs increasing steeply over the past year - a small donation would be incredible and would mean so much to us - we spend every penny on providing ervices for our guests: we have no employees and no money goes towards admin - everything is done by our fantastic volunteers.
Organizer
Mark Diver
Organizer
