Working with Friends of Essex and London Homeless people from 10 churches in Thurrock are working together to provide on a fridays evening, initially, a hot meal and support for the homeless of Grays.  Below is the report from FOELH. for further information in being involved please check with Ashley Lovett at Sockets Heath Baptist Church.  Please don’t just turn up as it is necssary to keep a balance between volunteers and those using the service.

We are really pleased to report our 1st Grays soup kitchen went really well and after worrying who would come how how would be received I have to say although we didn’t see masses of people we did see 10 guys and girls who all received hot meals, cakes, biscuits, pastries, sandwiches, toiletries, clothes, water and and warm drink. We gave out a total of 12 hot meals and I’m sure once the word spreads we will be able to assist more people. It was nice to engage with a few people who seemed very happy with what we had to offer.
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We also had a visit from 2 local councillors and fingers crossed we can work closely with them and see how we can assist and improve people’s lives in the Thurrock and surrounding areas. We also met Zoe who is a Community First Responder offering an invaluable service to people in need of urgent medical assistance and we had a lovely chat and I’m very confident that are paths will cross and we will work closely together moving forward.
Also a massive shout out goes to Ashley Lovett who worked tirelessly to coordinate and supply us with volunteers via the churches and helping make this project take place and thank you to Grays Baptist Church for the use of their forecourt!!! Lastly thanks go to Anthony, Claire, Ian who stood by our sides and helped us Friends of Essex & London Homeless produce our 2nd soup Kitchen thank you guys you really do keep us sane and are true unsung heroes making my beautiful wife Cheryl’s dreams come true to help make a difference. So feeling pleased with our efforts we go again next week with our 2 soup kitchens Charing Cross Wednesday followed by Grays on Friday thank you to all our volunteers new and old and to all our wonderful followers who support and donate to make what we do so special…….Much Love Team FOELH
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