Residents at Nottinghamshire YMCA’s city centre hostel are benefitting from enormous food donations generously supplied by a local Tesco branch.
Going against the grain…
Almost every week, supermarket giant Tesco rises to the occasion and kindly delivers one or two trolleys filled with a variety of breads to the hostel, on Shakespeare Street, for the residents to make meals during the week.
Rather than discard hundreds of in-date and good quality loaves once they can no longer be sold, the store – whose national motto is ‘every little helps’ – instead chooses to deliver the products straight to the hostel’s doorstep.
Compassion of businesses
“These acts of kindness are invaluable to our residents,” said Darren Kyle, Lead Youth Tenancy Sustainment Officer at the hostel, which provides housing services for vulnerable people who are in urgent need of a safe place to stay.
“Many of our residents have faced real challenges in their lives before turning to us for support and do not take their next meal for granted – ongoing contributions of this kind are a real treat and make a significant difference to their faith in human compassion.
“We would like to thank the amazing Tesco team for their invaluable generosity, and for recognising the urgent need for our community to pull together and give vulnerable people in our area the best chance at regaining control over their life.”
Residents independence
A big part of a resident’s journey towards independent living is working with Nottinghamshire YMCA key workers in the charity’s training kitchen at the hostel to learn basic life skills, including planning and preparing meals.
This makes the bread contributions even more special as, in addition to providing decent meals, the donations are contributing to residents’ ability to take steps towards regaining their independence.
Get in touch
If you would like to learn how you can support Nottinghamshire YMCA’s homeless and housing initiatives, please contact our team on mpr@nottsymca.org.
Know someone in need of housing support? Refer yourself or someone else on: stay@nottsymca.org.
Read the Nottingham Post‘s write-up of the story.