Leamington night shelter team gets new facilities thanks to kind donations

AC Lloyd, which is headquartered in Tachbrook Park, has built a new toilet and kitchen area at the storage unit of Leamington’s LWS Night Shelter.

LWS Night Shelter is a non-profit local organisation which offers year-round weekend (Friday until Sunday) provision of hot meals, food parcels, clothing, and other essentials as well as a safe place to sleep for the homeless and vulnerably housed people of Leamington.

The organisation, which began running as a three-month project in January 2015, has now been open for seven years and operates from Radford Road Church, have previously been based at St John’s Church and the former Priors Club.

The team organises a weekly scheme of 50 food parcels for the community, with the shelter’s storage unit, located at Victoria Business centre, serving as both a donation drop-off point and coordination hub for the programme’s volunteers.

AC Lloyd also organised a food box collection in December, with the donations given as part of the LWS reverse advent calendar.

The unit’s construction was a week of work, project managed by Kieren Shaw, a volunteer at LWS Night Shelter and Steve Lydall, construction site manager at AC Lloyd.

Material for the toilet unit, which included a sink, toilet, towel rack and light fitting, were donated by builder’s merchant Travis Perkins.

Symphony Kitchens provided the fittings and materials for the kitchen, complete with a fully plumbed sink and electrical outlets for the kettle and microwave.

The kitchen and toilet’s construction means LWS’ 150 volunteers are now able to spend more time in the space, without having to leave for the toilet, with the kitchen providing the added bonus of volunteers being able to enjoy a cup of tea and cooked food whilst working.

Directors at the LWS Night Shelter, Sarah Chapman and Susan Rutherford, who also co-founded the charity while a student in Leamington, said: “It’s great to have AC Lloyd’s continued support of the LWS’s work across Leamington.

“The team has been wonderful to collaborate with. We are very grateful for all the donations we received and that our joint project management and fit-out of the units went so smoothly.

“The units are being put to good use and the ability to use a kitchen and toilet facilities have really benefited the volunteers working at the unit, especially in these colder months.”

Glen Langham, planning and development director at AC Lloyd, said: “We are delighted to support LWS Night Shelter through both our donations as part of the charity’s reverse advent calendar and

helping improve the facilities at their food bank storage unit.

“The group’s volunteers give up their time and work hard to help look after and improve the lives of so many of Leamington’s homeless and vulnerable population.

“So with the support of some of our suppliers, it was great to be able to help improve the volunteers’ working environment with toilet and kitchen facilities.

“We look forward to hearing more about the LWS’s success in the months to come.”