Why deprive the homeless of a hot and healthy meal?

Published: 17 June, 2011

• HEALTHY food is important to all of us, but hot nutritious food is especially cherished and valuable to those without homes and adequate incomes. 

I read with concern the statements by Labour councillor Paul Convery that the excellent work of the Hare Krishna Food For All charity was “not needed” (Free food charity ‘not needed here’, June 10). 

Perhaps not in a perfect society, but we are not there yet (a view supported by the council-launched Fairness Commission report last week). It seems a paradox that the Labour group supports the case for the tax funding of all primary school meals in Islington on the basis of the importance of good nutrition but opposes the same for needy and homeless people by charity groups.

Last week, I went along to the York Way Food For All lunch van and enjoyed a very healthy rice and green beans stew for lunch. The meals were clearly much appreciated by many of the other diners, and the service was very well organised; no street litter or disruption to other members of the public. There appeared to be no parking regulation breaches.

It would be a great shame if the much-valued work of Food For All charity is impaired due to hounding by opaque parking regulations or harassment by council workers; there would be one less source of hot and healthy food for those who need it most.

URSULA YATES
Registered dietitian
N1

• COUNCILLOR Paul Convery’s comments that homeless charity Food For All’s services are not needed in the borough echo the recent proposals about banning soup runs by Westminster Council. 

Food For All is based on the philosophy of community self-help and distributes approximately 600 free vegetarian meals to the disadvantaged in Kentish Town, Camden and King’s Cross six days a week but it is not just a soup run. The award-winning charity also runs a homeless resource centre in Islington which provides the disadvantaged with vital access to free services, including IT training and healthy eating workshops. 

Much of the raw produce used to prepare the food is donated by local supermarkets through recycling initiatives, which reduces landfill use.

Staff from Winckworth Sherwood, the law firm where I work as a solicitor, volunteer with Food For All every Friday as part of the firm’s corporate social responsibility scheme. The scheme has been running for two years and has been very successful.

Banning soup runs will not improve the plight of the homeless – it will merely spread the problem elsewhere and will force people to steal in order to survive. 

Funding has been cut for day centres, and cuts to hostel places and the government’s Supporting People grant have made things worse, as evidenced by rising homelessness figures.

Preventing organisations from operating soup runs goes against the basic human instinct to reach out and help those in need. The notion of feeding the disadvantaged is enshrined in eastern and western religion and is a common practice in Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. Preventing people trying to help each other does not sit well with the grand aims of the Big Society and the localism agenda which should support and encourage the voluntary sector to help the community, not obstruct it. 

ANJANA GHOSH
Solicitor
SE1

• REGARDING the unfair comments made by Labour councillor Paul Convery, would it not have been more wise for him to check Food For All’s services first?  

We have been running day centres in Camden and Islington for eight years with great success. We have won numerous nationwide awards.

The only place I know of where a homeless person can get a meal is at Union Chapel on a Sunday. 

The church in Arlington Road, with which we were working, has stopped its tea and sandwich programme.  

In other words, services for disadvantaged people are extremely limited. Now, with the day centres having their funding cut, things will be even more tough on these marginalised people. 

PETER O’GRADY
Director, Food For All