Each month the Diversity Travel team supports a local charity, whether it’s with their time, a cash donation or collecting specific items that the charity is in need of. We decided that for the month of June it would be great to support Coffee4Craig, a Manchester charity that our Operations Director, Matt Truin, already volunteers at twice a week.
Coffee4Craig is a charity which support the homeless community in Manchester. The charity was set up in honour of the founder’s brother who sadly passed away on the streets due to mental health and substance addictions.
Three times a week the charity holds street kitchens, two outdoor ones by Manchester Cathedral and one indoor on Oldham Street. As well as the street kitchens, Coffee4Craig also have a food bank which provides food and essential items for those who are struggling financially and unable to provide for their family. Our Manchester office will be collecting as many items they can to donate to the food bank at the end of June.
A number of generous restaurants in the city centre cook for the Tuesday and Sunday street kitchens which is organised by Not Just Soup. On Mondays, it’s the volunteers who provide the food and so with our office having some very talented cooks, Matt managed to gather a team together to cook over the weekend, ready for the Monday evening.
There are normally between 75-80 guests that visit the kitchen each time. This was no match for our culinary masters…
Our Street Kitchen cooks were Charlotte, Miguel, Auxi, Mal, Jen, Tom, Przemek and Matt who rustled up a wealth of international flavours including lasagne, chicken & chorizo, meatballs, tortilla (a DT speciality), Polish sausage and beans and cakes galore.
The cooks also attended the street kitchen helping to serve out the food, even the traditional Manchester rain didn’t dampen their spirit!
Matt was full of praise for the team. “It’s a great experience and you meet some really interesting characters! The homeless situation in Manchester is getting worse so I just wanted to thank the team for volunteering to cook. Although it doesn’t change the world, it makes a difference to someone’s day when they can have some hot food after having been sat out in the Manchester rain all day. Thank you!”
With our first street kitchen being such a success, the team will be making it a regular occurrence and already have even more staff members keen to cook and lend a hand next month.
Keep an eye out for more photos of the team on July 17th, let’s hope the sun makes an appearance this time!