Fourth Monday in the month, and it’s my turn at Muswell Hill Soup Kitchen. Manager lets me in, informing me that he is wearing a stab vest as one of the guests is going to be banned. While I have heard of knife crime, this is my first close experience of it. The tables are all l

A Lightbulb Moment 10 years after inheriting the Muswell Hill Soup Kitchen, you are at a bus stop checking your mobile to see when your next bus is due and a question pops up. Could we use this technology to show a homeless person the nearest place where they can get a hot meal and so

Here We go Again It’s getting cold and Haringey Churches Winter Shelter programme has been running since early December now covering Enfield as well. I am asked which three weekends I can help as I normally do the overnight shift from Saturday night to Sunday morning. This means

Remember the Chorus? Ah look at all the lonely people….. A great song in your youth sounds a bit different now. 6pm and time to open up. Am I first tonight? Only a tiny light is on inside the church hall, making me wonder if Chef has taken a night off. Fortunately he has been th

Quantity versus Quality After missing 2 weeks, it is time to open up at 6pm but lights in the church hall are on and new chef Anthony has things well in hand. A huge pot of lovely vegetable soup is bubbling away while a new assistant, currently unemployed but who obviously knows his s

We’re having a Summer Break? Thursday evening and it’s time for me to open up again. Lights, dishwasher, urn for hot water all switched on and three kettles of boiling water in the tea urn so the tea will served hot. Two football-sized bags of minced beef have almost defro

Get in there and listen to the Music It’s been a lively week so far. My campaign to extend the 12 months period to 36 months for early access to pension for the terminally-ill grinds on, but time for including my amendment in the current Finance Bill is running out. However, I h

Can you help? Early April and I am back on the rota for the soup kitchen, after a digital break putting the group on various social networks and downloading images to make the sites more attractive. The soup kitchen is apparently not swamped with people as I heard, so it’s one o

“Can you wash these apples please?” 6.30 am Sunday morning at a homeless shelter. It’s the second week that this has been open and this week there are eleven guests. Three who stayed the previous week have found permanent accommodation, so a couple of faces are new.

Now it’s my turn? Interesting how things catch up with you. Many years ago when my Dad finally retired, he decided to do some voluntary work as he had plenty of time on his hands. He had not remarried after Mum died from cancer, had no mortgage and more than adequate income from