Newbury Soup Kitchen

What is Cuckooing?
Cuckooing is a practice where people take over a person’s home and use the property to facilitate exploitation. The most common form of cuckooing is where drug dealers take over a person’s home and use it to store or distribute drugs.
Drug dealers will often target the most vul...

Some people who sleep rough find it difficult to live anywhere other than in a place on their own that they can call home. One of our homeless said to us this week "I would rather die on the streets than go into a hostel"
This is no reflection of statutory accommodation; this is just a personal...

This was a particularly full on session this week. We had 47 people through the door, 7 haircuts and one chiropody appointment.

We knew it was going to be a difficult session, we could hear people across the river who were waiting to come in when we opened. As it was a warm afternoon many peopl...

Many of our clients live with an alcohol addiction. Over a period of time this takes a horrific toll on the body.

We are still looking for a First Aid volunteer to help support the team. We try to have two first aiders on every shift as we have many clients in at a time and situations often arri...

We are planning to open on a Wednesday to provide a basic drop in with tea coffee, pot noodles and to provide advocacy. Please email volunteer@newburysoupkitchen.org.uk for an application form and volunteer guide if you would like to help. The ability to write letters and make phone calls on beha...

We build relationships over time with our clients; sometimes when they fall down and their drug use increases they are worried and upset that we will be disappointed or worried about them. This is an interesting concept; it does show that the realisation of their actions and drug usage affects ot...

Local companies support us all the time, and The FlowerPot Cafe are no exception. Unfortunately this week they were broken in to and our charity pot emptied. We wish to say thank you to people who have gone into the cafe, bought a coffee to support them and donated money for the Soup Kitchen. All...

In this weekly update, we discuss domestic abuse: a third of domestic abuse victims were men, and only approximately 1% of refuge beds in England are reserved for men.

Unfortunately a client had an epileptic fit towards the latter part of the session. It went on for quite a long time so they slept afterwards for a while. One of our volunteers dealt with him initially as they saw it start and guided him onto the floor so he would not hurt himself. This evening ...