Established in 2012, Harvesters Kitchen is a resource aimed at meeting the needs of homeless and vulnerable people. Set up in partnership with Divine Rescue, the project offers an array of services all with the common goal of helping to rebuild the lives of those in our community. With the help of many regular volunteers each year our mission is to provide a hot meal, clothing and toiletries for those in need.
Harvesters Kitchen is made up of the soup kitchen which serves hot food and also the food bank which distributes food parcels and groceries. Both feed and care for the homeless and the less privileged in the community at least three to four times a week (Pre COVID 19) with scheduled lunch and breakfast sessions whilst providing other much needed support, advice, and signposting services to the users. We provide clothes, shoes and other materials to the needy. Post COVID 19, sees us developing and modifying our operation to enable us to continue to support the community in a COVID safe environment.
Beyond this, we aim to build impactful relationships and work with individuals to take control of their lives through setting goals and making choices aided by high-quality support to move them towards independent living.
The Harvesters’s Food bank operates weekly (Saturday’s) to distribute much needed grocery supplies to the less privileged in the community
Our clients are vulnerable and disadvantaged people in the community including homeless and those facing threat of homeless, unemployed and those on low income, asylum seekers etc.
We deliver our services in Hackney Borough which remains the second most deprived local authority in England on the Government’s Indices of Multiple Deprivation and all the wards are in the top ten percent the most deprived in the country. There is a high level of unemployment, homelessness, and other social challenges.
Unfortunately, this same group of people suffer from poor nutrition, have unaddressed health complications and no safe place to self-isolate from other people due to the type of accommodation available to them and again, they seem to bear the brunt of the impact of the COVID 19 crisis and we are in need of urgent financial support to help to minimize this impact on their lives.
Particularly during the pandemic and lockdown, Harvester’s Kitchen has responded swiftly by reshaping the nature of their operational delivery within the community to providing “Bags of Hope” to those mostly affected by the lockdown.
The Bags of Hope includes essential food items and relief materials. From the beginning of April 2020 to end of September 2020, the food bank has distributed over 1500 Bags of Hope in the given 6 month period and rising equating to 250 bags per month and rising.
The distribution of the bags of hope have been extremely popular and since October 2020 the bags of hope distribution has increased to a total of 130 bags per week.
Over the 8 years that they have been feeding the community, they have supplied and provided over 14,000 hot meals to people in the local community
Daily Lunch Sandwiches – This is delivered by Harvesters Kitchen on a daily basis at lunchtime 4 times a week. The sandwiches are supplied fresh daily by Pret a Manger. These sandwiches have proven quite useful and fulfill a daily need for the locality including NHS frontline key workers during this period of pandemic.
On Offer:
o Nutritious Hot- Meal
o Clothing, Toiletries and sanitary products
o Shower Facilities
o 1:1 Counselling and Support
o Housing Support
o Drug and Alcohol Abuse Counselling
o Physical/ Mental Health and Well being Sessions
Times:
o Sunday’s 8 am – 9am – Breakfast
o Tuesday 12.30 – 1.30 – Lunch
o Wednesday 12.30 – 1.30 – Lunch
o Last Saturday of Each Month 2.00 – 3.00 pm Lunch
o Food Bank: Tuesdays and Wednesdays 11.00 – 1.00 pm
o Counselling and Advocacy by appointment
New Times (During social distancing):
o Every Saturday 2pm – 3pm – Distribution of food and relief materials
o Every Tuesdays to Saturdays 1pm – 2pm – FREE Sandwiches
o Counselling and Advocacy by appointment
“Harvesters”- Bags of Hope project is funded by
Due to coronavirus and social distancing – Harvesters Soup Kitchen is not serving at the moment but we have food bank available – every Saturday – 2pm-3pm (please contact us on 020 7729 4375 / 4661 for more details)
If you wish to support our cause with any contributions, please contact us on 020 7729 4375 / 4661 or you can make a donation by using our donation button below: