Homeless Hostels Food Alliance aims to:
- Have a positive impact on the health of homeless people living in Merseyside
- Strengthen the diverse communities in Merseyside
- Work with like-minded people to strengthen their alliances in food delivery and production
The alliance involves homeless people and supporters working with hostels, day centres, other none-homeless organisations, local food kitchens and volunteers to grow their own food to feed themselves. The initiative was small to begin with, growing vegetables in the garden of a local church, but forming working alliances with other hostels and day centres, they started to address the wider issues of feeding the area’s homeless and low income communities. They are doing this by creating more allotments and working with local churches and the business community, developing unused land and property to undertake this work.
The project recently took part in the ‘Its Our World Awards’ in St George’s Hall, where the best of Merseyside’s environmentally conscious businesses and community groups were celebrated for doing their bit towards a greener future. The Homeless Food Alliance won the Environment and Health Project Award and was also nominated for a personal achievement award, and got a special mention in the judges category, which rewarded the hard work that went in to creating such a worthwhile scheme.
For further information, contact Peter Boyle at Liverpool YMCA on 0151 600 3530 or e-mail peter.boyle@hotmail.org.uk.
Source: Well Connected: 2010-2020 Decade of Health and Wellbeing, May Issue.