Making Winter Warmer

Making Winter Warmer helps support those who are homeless and sleeping on the streets this winter in Newcastle and Gateshead.

The project was set up in 2013 by Kerry Lister-Pattinson and her friend Jo-Anne Burns. Vimeo clip

If you would like to help, or for more information, email Kerry at makingwinterwarmer@gmail.com

Rucksacks of help
The pack rucksacks full of donated items and give them out to those who need them:

Kerry Lister-Pattinson with some of the donations
(c) The Journal

“They’re not necessarily for homeless people, although the majority of people we help do fall in to that category,” says Kerry. “If people need help they need help. We’ll not turn somebody away just because they’re not homeless.”

Kerry, 29, said: “We make up around 15 to 20 rucksacks on a Thursday, plus dozens of orders we receive when we are out the Saturday before. But the main thing for us is to be there for them and just be people. 

“I don’t want to say: ‘There you go, there’s your rucksack. Bye’. A lot of the people we help just want somebody to talk to them and acknowledge them. They feel embarrassed taking things, but value it more if you actually speak to them like human beings.”

The team are looking for:

Rucksack/Holdall/Small Suitcase  ~ Sleeping Bag 

Fleece  ~ Jacket  ~ Coat  ~ T-shirts  ~ Underwear  ~ Jumper  ~ Trousers

Hat  ~ Gloves  ~ Socks

Flask

Tins of soup (ring pull)  ~ Snacks (non-perishable)

Baby wipes  ~ Tissues  ~ Toothbrush & paste  ~ Deodorant  ~ Comb/brush

Spoon  ~ Bottled water  ~ Hand warmers

Understanding the problems
The work has also led the organisers to challenge some of the myths about homelessness and to question the approach of Newcastle City Council.

By no means all those homeless and on the streets are criminals. And the practice of repeatedly moving people on, or banning people from the City centre for a period, simply move people around and do nothing to address the underlying problems.

Kerry Lister-Pattinson (left) and Maria Wright
(c) the Journal

Emergency Use Only

Tressell Trust, along with Oxfam, Child Poverty Action and the Church of England have produced a study of why people went to food banks:

Emergency Use Only: 

Understanding and reducing the use of food banks in the UK

The looked at data from 900 people using food banks, and from 178 people who had used an advice service at one food bank. They conducted interviews with  40 people.

Their main conclusion is summed up in the report's title. People use food banks because they are desperate.

Summary of key findings (From the Executive Summary of the report) Full report here (120 pages).

1. People interviewed for this research turned to food banks as a last resort, when other coping strategies had failed or were overstretched. 

Tressell Trust food bank - report cover

Deciding to accept help from a food bank was often difficult, and was described by participants as being ‘unnatural’, ‘embarrassing’ and ‘shameful’.  

2. Most food bank users were facing an immediate, acute financial crisis – either a complete loss of income or a very significant reduction in their income had left them at crisis point, with little or no money to put food on the table.  

3. The acute crises people faced could be prompted by a sudden loss of earnings, or a change in family circumstances such as bereavement or homelessness.

However, for between half and two-thirds of the people included in this research, the immediate income crisis was linked to the operation of the benefits system (with problems including waiting for benefit payments, sanctions, or reduction in disability benefits) or tax credit payments.  

4. The emergency support available to people at a time of crisis was not sufficient to prevent them having to turn to a food bank. 

Many participants were not aware of the various emergency payments available in

different circumstances, and even fewer were receiving them. 

Only half (or less) of the users we spoke to knew they could seek support from the Local Welfare Assistance Scheme; very few of those potentially eligible had been awarded short-term benefit advances or hardship payments. 

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Yesterday was the feast of Christ the King. I can only think that Christ is weeping.

It is shameful that the authorities of such a rich nation should reduce its citizens to seeking food from strangers - and so often because of the actions of the government's own welfare agency.