Over 20 years ago the Salvation Army began serving soup and caring for the hungry and vulnerable. Today the service continues with a vast new army of individuals who donate, collect, prepare and serve all across the city. Local churches, businesses and many other organisations are involved, all making the Plymouth Soup Run accessible to some of the city’s most needy 365 days of the year.
Sunday
The Sunday Soup Run and Soup Kitchen
The Sunday Soup Kitchen at Shekinah has been running since October 2011 and operates alongside the mobile Soup Run. The Soup Kitchen opens from 7.30 to 9.15pm. The Sunday mobile run starts as usual at 8.45pm.
We have a regular team of volunteers, many of whom serve weekly, providing continuity and consistency. We are sometimes joined by representatives of support agencies in Plymouth and by medical and other students. Approximately monthly, a relief team from St Paul’s Church Efford operates the Sunday service.
We work closely with Plymouth Access to Housing (Path), completing referrals as necessary to the Rough Sleepers Team and signposting people to other services in the city. Sunday night is usually the busiest night of the week, serving between 100 and 120 meals. As well as food, the team provides sleeping bags, emergency clothing, toiletries and a listening ear. Because of the high number of people served on a Sunday we particularly welcome food (fruit, crisps, and individually wrapped chocolate biscuits or cakes), as well as toiletries, new socks and new boxer pants.
Please contact Hilary Knight, Co-ordinator via info@plymouthsouprun.org.uk or on 01752-404134 if you are able to help in any way.
Monday
Hope Baptist Church
The Soup Run at Hope Baptist Church has been run on a Monday evening for over 20 years. We serve in the name of Jesus, and are fortunate to have many different businesses and partners within the city and our regular church congregation to help prepare and distribute the food.
The Monday Night team consists of a kitchen lead from the church, and a team in the kitchen who prepare the food, making soup, sandwiches, tea, coffee and cakes and then a separate team who use the church minibus to serve the food. The kitchen preparation starts at 5:45pm and finishes at 8:00pm; the serving team start at 8:15pm and finish at 10:30pm.
We are very grateful for all the donations from around the city and the generosity of local business and restaurants. The current teams involved are Saltash Medical Centre, Nandos Barbican, The Land Registry, The Dockyard Union, Plymouth Labour Action, Jubb Engineering, Francis Clark, Blackwell Bate and Mark Holt and Co. Nando’s and Ivor Dewdney both provide food as well as Marks and Spencer Food.
We can serve between 60 -100 people any Monday night and offer a listening ear and can signpost to other organisations that offer support such as Shekinah Mission and Path (Plymouth Access to Housing). If you are interested in hearing more about Soup Run on a Monday or becoming part of our growing team, either as part of a business, organisation or individual volunteer, please email souprun@hopebaptist.co.uk.
Tuesday
St Matthias Plymouth
St Matt’s organise the Soup Run on alternate Tuesdays. We have a good number of volunteers, including many from the student community. We are divided into two teams, each led by a couple, and alternating between food preparation and serving on the street. We provide a hot meal, along with soup and hot chocolate, sandwiches and snacks. We usually have a supply of sleeping bags, clothes and toiletries. We are very grateful for for all the many donations we receive. We can be contacted by email at souprun@stmplymouth.org.uk or jerryjillandco@aol.com, or by phone, Neil 07443485522 Jerry 07976254301 or Jill 07975668303 https://www.stmplymouth.org.uk.
Wednesday
Mutley Baptist Church
We are fortunate to have three teams which means that every Wednesday of the year there is a team from Mutley Baptist Church (MBC) out on the streets. In addition to the street teams, there are two food pick-up teams, collecting food in the afternoons. As well as supplying food and drink, we also signpost those on the streets to other organisations and liaise with Plymouth Access to Housing (PATH) as needed.
Newcomers especially are referred to Gaffer’s Café at MBC on a Thursday, 12 – 2pm for a free hot meal, hot drinks, a chat and further advice if needed. Our Recovery Group (Tuesday evenings) has currently been paused. Soup Run and Gaffer’s refer people to Plymouth Focus Advice Centre (also located in MBC) who provide free and confidential debt and welfare benefits advice. Some are referred to Sexual Abuse Listening Therapy. Both PFAC and SALT are Christian charities.
Contact: Karen Allen on 07885218094, or via the Church Office on 01752-203346 or email office@mutleybaptist.co.uk.
Thursday
The Rotary Club of Plymouth Mayflower
The Rotary Club of Plymouth Mayflower has been carrying a Soup Run on a Thursday every five weeks since November 2011. Quite a few members and friends help out on the Soup Run. We get donations of food from members and friends and we fundraise to cover any expenses.
Callington Community
Thursday nights as part of the rota organised by Hilary, currently every fifth week.
The Callington team is made up from a number of members from a wide range of backgrounds and includes a Town Councillor, our local Cornwall Councillor, Callington Lions, Freemasons, retired school cook, shop worker and even an Insurance Broker. It is self-funding and supported both materially and financially by the community as a whole with regular input from Callington Lions Club, The Cornish Bakery as well as a number of private individuals.
We are very proud of our Community links and in addition to the Soup Run itself give talks and presentations to local groups to raise awareness of the many issues involved in homelessness and those faced by our service users.
For further details please call Jeremy Gist on 07971256950 or email jeremy.gist@gistinsurance.co.uk or if you prefer a non-commercial email jeremygist@hotmail.com.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been delivering Soup Run in Plymouth every fifth Thursday for the past six years.
Food preparation takes place at our church on Mannamead Road and starts at 7pm with a team of about 12 volunteers making up flasks of hot water, heating soup and pasties, making up sandwiches and bags of cakes and fruit. This is taken out with hot chocolate, hats, gloves, scarves, blankets and sleeping bags to the drop-off points by 6 volunteers, where we have a chat with service users and support them by signposting them to additional services and giving out Salvation Army clothes vouchers where required.
We are grateful for the donations made by Ivor Dewdney Pasties Ltd, The Oggy Oggy Pasty Co, The Dartmoor Bakery, and church members and friends, which enable us to continue this work.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a long history of charitable work in our own community and world-wide. See what we do by clicking here.
Obedair
Obedair is a Plymouth based construction company who are passionate supporters of Shekinah. We have over 25 years of experience across all sectors and long-standing relationships with Clients and fellow Built Environment professionals.
We are proud of our reliable and comprehensive team who are able to deliver complex building and construction projects to high specifications and guarantee delivery on time.
We have vast experience in the Education, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Defence, Industrial, Heritage and Commercial sectors and the Obedair team are proud of the projects that we have delivered in the South West region.
If you would like to find out more about us, please visit our website at www.obedair.com or contact theteam@obedair.com, 01752-546733.
Friday
Plymouth Christian Centre co-ordinates all the Friday teams, one of them being from Chaddlewood.
Co-ordinator is Paul McDowell, email: MIT@plymouthchristiancentre.org or Catherineporter01@yahoo.co.uk
Saturday
There are four teams involved with the Soup Run on a Saturday night with each team going out every four weeks. The teams are from Methodist Central Hall, Emmanuel Church, St Paul’s Church, Plymstock United Reformed Church and a team who come up from Cornwall. The overall teams are co-ordinated by John Stephens from Methodist Central Hall, where the food is prepared on three Saturdays each month. John can be contacted via email: jmstephens1962@gmail.com, or phone: 07952414069.
The team from St Paul’s Church Efford are mostly church members with additional helpers who wish to help out a very worthwhile cause. Generous donations from St Paul’s and Emmanuel Churches, Faraday Mill and FareShare are invaluable in ensuring that all the service users are well catered for. We also cover Shekinah Sunday team once a month to ensure that they have a break. Team members also help out at Shekinah with their Saturday morning breakfast. We also hand out clothing, blankets and the occasional tin of dog food. For further details please contact Nick Connett on 01752-706872 or email 65nicholas@gmail.com.
A drop-in session for rough sleepers and people in emergency accommodation is held at Shekinah 9am – 11:45am on Saturdays. This is run by a Path staff member and Soup Run volunteers. As well as a cooked breakfast and take-away lunch, clients have the chance to take a shower and have clean clothing as needed. Professional volunteers provide advice on housing and health issues, e.g. foot care, mental health, blood-borne virus testing. For more information contact Hilary Knight via info@plymouthsouprun.org.uk or on 01752-404134.