Church opens new canteen for homeless
A church has opened a new canteen in Crawley town centre to help feed the homeless – but members say it is in desperate need of volunteers .
The Crawley Assemblies of God church, which has moved into The Tree on the High Street temporarily while Crawley Museum continues its bid for the site, opened the canteen last week. It aims to act as a meeting place for the community in the morning, and in the afternoon it is dedicated to feeding the homeless.
A spokeswoman for the church, which was previously based at Elim Church in Ifield, said it was in desperate need of volunteers. The church is urging anyone interested in helping out to come forward.
The spokeswoman said: “We open up the canteen for homeless people from 2pm and we offer them free food. But in the morning from 9am until 2pm it is open to the wider community and everyone is welcome to come along.
“We really want people to know where we are and we are looking for volunteers who will be there to help with the running of the place.
“We want to reach out to people who are homeless and have no place to go and we want them to feel that they can come to us every day. But to keep going we do need the support of the community to make it work. We are a charity and need all of the support we can get.”
The church is also open for anyone needing to talk about drugs, alcohol, health, family or job problems.
The spokeswoman added: “We want everyone to know that they are welcome for service. We find that it is good for people, for example perhaps someone who is disabled and does not feel they want to go out very much, they find coming to us really helps.
“We also have many elderly people who do not see their families very often and like the company. It is amazing how it can help people to feel part of something and do something again. We also have a car park for visitors.
“It is very exciting and we hope we can bring something to the community and become part of it.”
If you want to volunteer at the canteen or church call 07577573655.
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Weather for Crawley
Tuesday 21 May 2013
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 10 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: North
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Temperature: 5 C to 16 C
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