Leamington night shelter appealing for donations to continue supporting people during coronavirus outbreak

A night shelter in Leamington is asking for donations of food and clothes so that they can continue to support people during the coronavirus outbreak.

The team at the LWS Night Shelter have seen a lot of changes with the way they work over the last few weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Most recently many of the people they support have been housed in accommodation and the shelter has now changed to be an outreach service.

A spokesperson from LWS Night Shelter said: "So basically because of the COVID19 crisis we have been forced to stop providing indoor hot meals and overnight accommodation, however Warwick District Council has been working to house all rough sleepers in order for them to have somewhere to self-isolate.

"Most have now been given accommodation and we have changed our service to become an outreach service, delivering packed lunches, hot meals and telephone support to over 40 newly-accommodated rough sleepers, along with The Salvation Army Way Ahead Project and Helping Hands.

"On top of this, LWS Night Shelter will be delivering weekly food parcels to our regular guests who have their own accommodation but are struggling financially.

"We have spoken to lots of people who are panicking about how they will cope for food with the local services closed, and we are aiming to support them as much as possible.

"The newly-accommodated rough sleepers will receive a weekly food parcel too. We are still providing hot meals and drinks to those still sleeping rough."

Despite having a new way of operating the night shelter team still need donations to help them continue their work.

The spokesperson added: "We would be grateful for donations to help fill our food parcels, including UHT milk, cereal, tinned food, biscuits, crisps, sweets/chocolate, coffee and sugar.

"We are also asking for clothes donations (we are particularly low on men's jeans) as well as books, art materials and anything else that can help keep our guests entertained indoors.

"We have noticed a lot of extra costs to our charity due to having to change our operations, too. This includes things like PPE, disposable items for food service, clothing for guests and some fresh food. We are therefore grateful for any financial donations, which can be made at: paypal.me/LWSNightShelter

"If anyone would like to drop off donations, they should get in touch with us via www.lwsnightshelter.org/contact and we will arrange a drop off time.

"Finally, we want to say a huge thank you to all our brilliant, dedicated volunteers, and to everyone who has donated over the last few weeks.

"This includes local Aubrey Allen who have been supplying hundreds of meals to all three of the above charities to distribute to our service users, and local supermarkets like Tesco and M&S.

"We have been really moved by the kindness shown by our local community during such a difficult time."

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper when you do your weekly shop.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you