A lady from the Catholic church opposite donated a large box of Christmas crackers to the winter night shelter for the homeless, which the Southend churches are running.
Towards the end of the day a man came in to say he had three bags of good quality winter clothing for the night shelter.
Nearly £150 was donated to suspended meals. This was made up of lots of smaller donations. Several people came into the coffee shop specifically to give to suspended meals, without ordering anything themselves. Some people added a few extra quid onto their bills. Several asked how much they would need to give to pay for a whole meal, and I explained that most of our homeless customers choose the all day breakfast at £6.60.
We also received a cheque for £100 for suspended meals.
Several homeless people came in for meals.
One man who is extremely vulnerable gave me a handful of small change towards his meal, which was all he could afford. It's important to him to give something towards his meals.
We received some high quality publicity from the Fairtrade Foundation to use in the new year to promote our fairly traded coffee.
Buying coffee that's fairly traded; donating good quality items for the homeless; giving a suspended meal: these are all small acts of kindness. None of them is going to change the world. And as sinful human beings our motives are always mixed - giving makes us feel good! But standing at the counter for seven hours today and seeing all those small but generous human impulses in my immediate local community made me feel pretty good. What's the next step, I wonder, in breaking down the barriers between us so that homeless and housed people can look upon each other as equals?
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