No referral, no assessment, no proving you deserve it.
Everything we run is open access. It is a deliberate choice and it is the thing people tell us matters most.
Three steps, and the first one is just turning up
Walk in during opening hours, or ring. You do not need a referral, a voucher, an appointment or an explanation.
Somebody will sit down with you for as long as it takes to work out what would actually help. Often it is not the thing you came in for.
We help with what we can and we are honest about what we cannot, including walking you to the organisation that can.
How each service actually runs
Written plainly, because charity language often hides how simple the thing is.
The food project
It is a choice-based pantry, not a parcel. You come in, you take what your household needs from the shelves, and nobody watches what you pick. Choice matters — being handed a bag of things you did not choose and may not eat is its own small humiliation, and it wastes food.
Debt and benefits advice
Free, confidential appointments with trained financial counsellors. We will check what you are entitled to, deal with creditors on your behalf where you want us to, and stay with the case until it is resolved rather than handing you a leaflet.
The youth space
Open four evenings a week, free, for eleven to eighteens. There is food, there are things to do, and there are adults who are DBS-checked, trained and consistent. Most of the value is simply that the same people are there every week.
Four things that grew out of the main work
Started because people asked, and kept going because they worked.
The Wednesday meal
A hot meal and company, every Wednesday, for anyone. No charge and no expectation that you are struggling.
The warm room
Open through winter with tea, wifi and somewhere to charge a phone. Quietly one of the busiest things we do.
Uniform exchange
Good-condition school uniform, free, all year. Bring what you have grown out of if you can, and take what you need either way.
Volunteering
Ninety people on the rota. Induction, training and expenses covered, with shifts from two hours a fortnight upwards.
Asked at the door and on the phone
No. There is no means test, no referral and no assessment for any of our services. We take the view that people do not come to a food pantry on a whim, and that gatekeeping costs more in dignity than it saves in tins.
Yes. Nothing you tell an adviser is shared outside the team without your consent, with the single exception of a serious risk to a child or to someone’s safety. Those limits are explained at the start of every appointment.
Our full annual accounts are published and linked from the impact page, independently examined, with the split between services, running costs and fundraising shown. If a figure looks wrong to you, ring and ask — we would rather have that conversation than not.
A good number of our volunteers have, and they are often the best at it. There is no waiting period and nobody will treat you differently. Induction and training are provided and expenses are covered.
We are not a housing service, a mental health service, a legal practice or an emergency service. We know the local organisations that are, and we will walk you to them rather than take on something we cannot do properly.
Come in, ring, or send us a message. All three work.
You will not have to explain yourself to more than one person.