Feeding the homeless

Stepping Stones Project

We have formed a partnership with the Sri Sathya Sai Service Organisation at Mill Hill to provide cooked meals for the homeless when every other local facility is closed. The SSSSO is an organisation that is committed to helping in their community and this has proved to be an ideal partnership. We use premises at 1 Friern Park which is close to Tally Ho corner in Finchley and is provided rent-free by the council.

We are open to provide a full three course meal free of charge on every Sunday and Bank Holiday (including Christmas Day). We regularly have about forty people who drop in for lunch.

The co-ordinator of this scheme is Indra Narendran who has around forty volunteers who help on a rota basis to prepare and serve the food.

The project is overseen by a Steering Committee of eight, which is composed of six of our volunteers and two of our clients. Our aim is to provide the standard of food and service that our clients expect and which is also within our capabilities.

We received a grant from the Big Lottery Fund for this project, which was be sufficient to purchase food ingredients until December 2007 and since then we have been fortunate to receive occasional sums from various charities that has enabled us to keep the wolf from the door.