Lunchtime Care Van
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Lunchtime Care Van Progress Report August 2014 1 BACKGROUND The idea for a daytime Care Van project arose from a desire to make better use of the van; a resource which is used every night of the year, but never during the day. Although the Care Van Steering Group was keen to pursue this possibility, it recognised the importance of investigating whether a need existed within the city for a daytime service and if so, what form it would take. A volunteer, Kirsty White, was commissioned to carry out a feasibility study and recommend what type of service was needed, if any. She spoke to existing Care Van volunteers, service users of the evening Care Van and staff and service users from other agencies that work alongside rough sleepers and those considered vulnerable to homelessness. Two things became apparent: Firstly, that there was a lack of free food available around lunchtime, particularly on Saturdays; and secondly, that those who are homeless and have been housed in B&Bs by the Council often have little or no access to cooking facilities. Other options for services that were considered were a mobile food bank, a housing advice service and a clothing bank. It was decided that a service that handed out a free lunch best fitted the needs that had been identified and that the existing advice resources available on the van would be developed. A proposal was submitted to the Executive of Bethany Christian Trust and full support was provided to run a six month pilot for three days a week. 2 PREPARATORY PERIOD 2.1 Recruitment of a Coordinator A Lunchtime Care Van Coordinator was recruited from an internal and external pool of applicants. Subsequently Ruth Longmuir began her role on Monday 7 October 2013. This allowed four weeks of preparation before the pilot operation commenced on Monday 4 November. It was decided to run the service on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday lunchtimes. The feasibility study had identified Saturday as a day that did not have much free food provision and it was felt that the two weekdays chosen spread the service across the week. 2.2 Recruitment of Volunteers The volunteers in the existing evening service are almost entirely in church teams but there is one Composite Team made up of volunteers either from a church with no Care Van team or of volunteers with no church connection. Bethany receives a lot of requests from individuals who are keen to work directly with homeless people and so it was decided to design this project with that opportunity in mind, as far as this met the core aim of the project, to relieve the suffering and meet the long term needs of homeless and vulnerable people. Therefore a mixture of church teams and individuals were sought. Every church with an EH postcode that Bethany had contact details for was emailed with a promotional poster and offered a talk about the Care Van and/or Care Shelter. Information was also sent to existing Care Van and Care Shelter teams to recruit whole teams as well as individual volunteers. A good number of volunteers responded and 29 attended the first induction on 30 October. It was decided that Mondays during November would be staffed by Alasdair Bennett (Group Head), Cameron Black (Care Van Manager) and Ruth Longmuir. This reduced the number of volunteers needed to start the project and gave more time for further recruitment. It also allowed those shaping the project to see it first hand and develop it as the month progressed. 2.3 Sourcing Food Supplies The food to be given out needed to be sourced at no cost and so various cafes were approached to see if they would donate their leftover sandwiches/pastries that would otherwise be wasted. Pret A Manger agreed to donate leftover sandwiches, wraps and baguettes from their shop in Hanover Street and Patisserie Florentin in Stockbridge to give pastries and croissants. Because the cafes make their supplies fresh every day, the food remains fresh for use the following lunchtime, particularly as it is refrigerated overnight. Food is collected by a volunteer every Sunday, Tuesday and Friday, i.e. the night preceding the Care Van outing. We ask volunteers to commit to being on the rota once a month. Any gaps are filled by staff members. Fareshare, a food redistribution project, deliver food to the Care Van the morning that it goes out. The delivery varies depending on what is in stock but often includes fruit, individual cold drinks, yoghurts, cakes, biscuits, crisps, savoury snacks and sometimes more sandwiches. Fareshare kindly do not charge us additionally for this service but include the delivery within the daily one to Bethany Christian Centre, as this is where the Care Van is based. Tea, coffee, milk and sugar are provided by the volunteers. 3 PARTNERSHIPS The Care Van is a joint project between Bethany Christian Trust and Edinburgh City Mission. This partnership was developed in 1991 when Alan Berry, founder of Bethany, and Bill Chalmers of the City Mission started taking an old caravan out at night and feeding the city’s homeless. Twenty-three years and three or four vehicles later we now have our purpose outfitted van that is today’s Care Van. Two representatives from Edinburgh City Mission sit on the Steering Group alongside two from Bethany and two volunteer representatives. As mentioned above, partnerships have been formed with Pret A Manger, Patisserie Florentin and Fareshare. Pret A Manger are keen to have all of their stores partnered with a charity and so were delighted that we were able to work with the closing times of the Hanover Street store. This had been a barrier to them finding a charity partner previously. Patisserie Florentin were also very happy to give their food to the homeless. Years ago they had a casual arrangement to support homeless people and they were keen to revive their involvement in feeding those who are homeless in Edinburgh. Existing partnerships with churches across Edinburgh and the Lothians were strengthened in creating this project. The teams that volunteer for the lunchtime Care Van are also either involved in the evening Care Van or Care Shelter. A new dimension to this service is the incorporation of corporate volunteers in the rota; two spaces on the van a week are set aside for volunteers from various companies. This has been really successful in terms of volunteer experience and also in their contribution to the Care Van service. Volunteers have been enthusiastic and have given their all when volunteering. Companies that have provided volunteers are Lloyds Bank, Bank of Scotland, Nationwide Building Society, Tesco Bank, Studio LR, Eteaket and Arco. Currently there are corporate volunteers lined up until February 2015: they are from Scott- Moncrieff, Crowne-Plaza Hotels, Tesco Volunteers with Erica, founder of Eteaket Bank and Citi Bank. The links with these companies are made by Ann McLaughlan, Bethany’s Corporate Fundraiser. Providing an opportunity to volunteer with a front line service is beneficial to these relationships, and as mentioned above is of great benefit to the Care Van service. 4 VOLUNTEERS A good number of people have come forward to volunteer and more people are coming on board all the time. Currently there are seven teams involved (five from churches and two groups of friends) and forty-nine individual volunteers. Now that we have a good pool of individual volunteers we plan to group them into self-organising teams. This will not only cut down on the work the coordinator has to do to arrange the rota but will also make filling last minute cancellations much more efficient and effective. Some willing team coordinators have been identified and it is hoped that a number of new teams will be up and running in the near future. There are ten volunteers who do the food collection circuit; seven of whom also volunteer by going out with the van. Mostly they volunteer once a month on a rota but some have opted to do it more often. We also have an admin volunteer who inputs Volunteer Information Forms to our volunteer database and inputs the statistics from the Lunchtime Report Forms. 5 CLIENT GROUP 5.1 Service User Backgrounds Those that use the service do so for a range of reasons. There are those who are rough sleeping and do not know where their next meal is coming from. Others are homeless and have been housed by the Council in temporary accommodation such as a hostel or B&B. Some hostels do not provide meals during the day and most B&Bs don’t have kitchen facilities for residents. Many who are staying in B&Bs are required to leave their accommodation during the day and often struggle to afford to buy lunch in town. Where we see people begging or selling the Big Issue we approach them and ask if they would like a free lunch. There are some that attend the van that have moved on from their homeless situation into a flat of their own but find it difficult to pay bills and buy food. Due to recent welfare reforms people are having their benefits sanctioned more often and more easily. Very quickly people have no money for food and can often end up in debt. The Care Van is a vital service for these people. For others, the food is a welcome help but it is the friendly faces of the volunteers and the social interaction that makes a difference to them. Often homeless people are lonely and isolated; they feel passed around between services and rejected by the public who walk past them on the street without a second glance.