Resistance Kitchen Update – Week 7

With homelessness in England reaching a 25 year high, many families are left sleeping rough on the streets – in doorways and bus shelters. Rough sleeping households went up 18.2% last year. In Croydon, according to council figures, its higher at 21%.

Most homeless households – some 105,000 with 131,000 dependent children, are in temporary accommodation. Not only do people not have the stability and security of a home, but they’re often left to cope in just once room, with no facilities to cook meals or do washing, according to the homeless charity Crisis.

Again in Croydon the figures of households rendered homeless are higher than the national average (1.79 per 1000, compared to 1.62 per 1000), and alarmingly disproportionately from ethnic minorities (74% are non-white, compared to national average of 34%).

With this rise in homelessness we are begining to see more homeless people coming to our kitchen.

Kettle Boxes & Cold Boxes

Our current provision of food range falls short of what they require. Staple items that we provide like rice and pasta are no good to them as they don’t have access to cooking facilities.

As austerity began to bite, in 2014 the The Trussel Trust franchise of foodbanks introduced ‘kettle boxes’ and ‘cold boxes’ to give out to guests who do not have access to cooking facilities or are too poor.

In her book Hunger Pains – Life inside foodbank Britain (2016), Kayliegh Garthwaite describes them:

“The problems begin when someone can’t make pasta because they don’t have a cooker, or when boiling the kettle is impossible because there is no electricity or because it costs too much. On average, it costs around 2.5p every time you boil a full kettle, says npower. [ update: this now costs 6.8p , Mar 2023].
Hearing people say they would eat stone-cold soup and chicken curry straight from the tin because they couldn’t afford to heat it up, remain some of the most gut-wrenching and uncomfortable moments of my time at the foodbank. That’s when people need ‘kettle boxes’ or ‘cold boxes’ from the foodbank.
In ‘kettle boxes’ there will be sachets of dried soup, instant mash and noodles, and pots of porridge that you make just by adding water, as well as staples such as crackers and cereal.
‘Cold boxes’ are handed out when people have no kettle, or no electricity to even put the kettle on. These will typically contain long-life milk, cereal, tinned fruit, tinned potatoes, tinned corned beef, tinned custard, fruit juice, crackers, biscuits and jam.
I met people who were forced to return packages of rice, spaghetti and soup since, with no money, they were unable to pay for electricity to cook the food.
‘Kettle’ or ‘cold’ boxes were mainly asked for when people were homeless and living in temporary bed-and-breakfast accommodation and didn’t have access to full cooking facilities, or when no money was available to even put a few pounds on the electricity meter.”

We Launch Our Own Emergency Box

Having come across the same problem, this week we launched our own emergency box for those without access to cooking facilities.

At this stage we didn’t create separate packs for individual guests – no kettle or cold packs, but kept one box of all such supplies so individual guests can choose what items are most suitable for their particular requirements. Giving choice is key to lifting dignity, and it’s not a case of one pack fits all.

Our emergency box includes:

1. Items that are self contained and just need hot water added to them without the need an additional saucepan or bowl to make, ie pot meals.

Many local cafes allow people access to hot water as long as it’s not too bothersome, so even a homeless guest could benefit from a self contained pot meal which a cafe could easily fill with hot water for them.

We offer a variety:

Pot Noodle meals ( Curry flavour etc)
Pot Pasta meals ( Tomato Herb, etc)
Pot Oats ( Golden Syrup, etc)
Powdered Soup sachets provided with a sealed heat resistant cup for each sachet.

2. Non-perishable items:

Tinned Rice Pudding
Biscuits
Cream Crackers
Jam
Tuna
Sardines

Plus plastic cutlery sets

This is then combined with items from our main range such as

Hot meal
Fruit pack
Water bottle

As we progress, we will be guided by the advice from our guests and modify the supply range accordingly.

Suffering In Silence

We are finding that guests who are in desperate circumstances like homeless or without gas or electricity hide their suffering, enduring the pain in silence. So our volunteers have to be proactive, noticing if a guest doesn’t take their full entitlement by asking if they want other items. This way discovering if they have special requirements that perhaps we might not be meeting. Guests already feel shame and are embarrassed to have to come to a foodbank, so will not readily share their requirements as they feel they are already imposing on us. Its left for us to extract that information with a friendly smile and reassuring words that we are here to help them. Many guests are from ethnic minorities, switching to their mother tongue can also often help in breaking barriers.

One of our volunteer noticed an elderly guest only took a sardine tin from our full range of food items, she asked if he needed anything else, why was he taking so little? He then confided that he doesn’t have cooking facilities. She reassured him – don’t worry, we are here to help, we will get you what you need, and called me over.

We keep our emergency box in the car, away from the food stall, away from the bustle of the queue. This allows our guest space, time and privacy should they wish to discuss their situation or any special requirements.

I escorted our guest to the car, and showed him our range of food items for those without access to cooking facilities. Away from the table, he explained in his own time that he was not homeless, but he had no electricity or gas, just cold water. Initially he only took a packet of custard cream biscuits. I asked what about a packet of crackers and a bottle of jam to spread on them? After hesitation he accepted. I said what of the hot pot meals – pot noodle, pot pasta, pot oats – would he like some of them? He said that without electricity he has no kettle and without gas he has no hot water. I explained that any cafe’s should give him hot water free, showed him how easy it was for them to do – just peel back the lid and fill with hot water and your hot meal is ready in 2 minutes. He admitted he liked noodles and chose a pot noodle. What about a pasta pot and a golden syrup oats pot to go with that? Or a second pot noodle for later? But he was reticent that one was enough for him. He thanked us, and went his way.

Ten minutes later he came back and when I was alone near the car he approached me and confided more about his situation, and asked if there were any agencies that might be able to help him.

This is the next stage in our development, progressing from just providing food to something more..