A fall in the amount of food donations to a local homelessness charity means that Croydon Nightwatch could soon be facing a crisis, unable to meet the desperate needs it faces every night.
Donations of non-perishable food to Croydon Nightwatch are seriously down on previous years
“Donations are seriously down this year,” a senior charity worker has told Inside Croydon.
“We will run out of food in summer if we don’t get a lot in now.”
Croydon Nightwatch provides warm food and other support on a nightly basis throughout the year for the homeless and working poor. The Harvest Festival period has been a focal point for their collection of donations.
That appeal runs through October, but after three weeks the charity has collected only one-third of the canned soup it needs to keep going for the year, and two-thirds of the general groceries.
Jad Adams, the chair of Croydon Nightwatch told Inside Croydon, “We normally hope to get enough non-perishable food at Harvest Festival to keep us going through the whole year.
“Over recent years, donations have slowed and this year they are seriously down. We will run out of food in summer if we don’t get a lot in now,” Adams said.
Nightwatch provides food for around 80 homeless and otherwise vulnerable people every night at the Queen’s Gardens. Perishable food is bought or donated day-to-day, but groceries and soup are donated by the community in the Harvest Festival appeal and distributed throughout the year.
Nightwatch charity workers at one of their collection sessions in central Croydon
“I think there is a change in a pattern of giving. The need is such now that people are giving all-year-round to the food banks, rather than once to Nightwatch. The food banks are very necessary charities working in the same field as us, and we value them, but we also need donations.”
Cans of soup and other products, and packets of rice and pasta, are all welcome.
To find out more about Nightwatch, click here.
Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network- Inside Croydon works together with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and BBC London News
- Inside Croydon named Journalist of the Year at 2018 Anna Kennedy Online Autism Heroes Awards
- ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: For two consecutive years, 2017 and 2018, Inside Croydon has been the source for two award-winning nominations in Private Eye magazine’s annual celebration of civic cock-ups
- In 2018, Inside Croydon had 1.6million pages viewed by more than half a million unique visitors
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or what to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
Jose Joseph would have donated his councillor’s salary to Nightwatch. Just saying.