A HOMELESSNESS charity will able to give more people in south Warwickshire a hot meal and a safe place to sleep thanks to a generous donation.
Barratt Homes has donated £!,500 to LWS Night Shelter.
The charity, located near the housebuilder’s Aston Grange development in Upper Lighthorne, was set up over 10 years ago by two medical students at the University of Warwick to provide the service during the winter.
Susan Rutherford, co-founder and co-Ddrector at LWS Night Shelter, said: “The donation from Barratt Homes will be spent on supplies for food parcels. As our stocks run low in the latter part of the year, we end up spending about £200 per week on food parcels, as well as ensuring we have sufficient funds to meet our core running costs.
“Financial donations are essential to enable us to provide our services and having the support of local businesses and individuals is really important in showing our guests that the community cares.”
Susan continued: “All of our food is donated by local businesses, cafes and supermarkets. The food is then prepared and cooked by our wonderful catering volunteers. We provide a hot evening meal between Friday and Sunday and breakfast on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
“Company is such an important part of life. At the shelter, we put a lot of emphasis on time spent chatting, eating together and sometimes playing games or making crafts.”
Over the past year, the charity was utilised by 372 different people, 124 of whom stayed the night.
The donation from Barratt Homes was made as part of its Community Fund scheme via The Barratt Redrow Foundation, which is run by its parent company, Barratt Redrow. It is designed to support national and local charities, large and small, across the areas in which the housebuilder operates.
Adrian Evans, managing director at Barratt Homes West Midlands, added: “We are very proud to support the LWS Night Shelter and its goal to provide food, safety and community to homeless people in Leamington and its surrounding areas.
“We hope the charity continues to provide its fantastic services and that more people can support this organisation and its efforts to support vulnerable local residents.”
