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Have you guys noticed an increase in prices and are you beginning to struggle to keep up with the demand, especially with the higher costs in the kitchen?
I mean everything’s way more expensive. We do get a few donations but in the last year it’s pretty much dried up. I think people have been really cautious with what they are spending and have chosen to hang onto their own money,
so therefore the donations have dried up for a year now. So yes, it has been difficult. We’ve
had to find different ways to make ends meet, because we buy a lot of what we cook so it’s not always easy. To give you an example we’ve got a warehouse and they tried to put the price up from £26 a month to £202, when we’ve only got an electricity supply and no gas. So, we complained and got it for £37 a month, so I think the wisdom would be to shop around and try and find better deals elsewhere. But if people don’t know what to do it might be better to go to a financial advisor, because anyone who didn’t know what to do would be paying the £202 a month.
You mentioned donations there, do you want to talk about some initiatives you’ve done with the likes A Love Supreme and Roker Report?
Sunderland AFC this year have really come behind us to support us. Lee Johnson and
Steve Davison came down to help the kitchen last Christmas. I love Chris Waters and he’s been down, Oscar Chamberlain from the media department has been down helping, there’s been quite a few of the Ladies team as well as Gary Bennett coming down, so again the Sunderland side have really sort of kicked in. Thankfully we’ve also teamed up with yourselves (A Love Supreme) as well to support the food donations
outside your HQ on match days as you obviously have a physical presence opposite the stadium and it’s just lovely and it’s just nice to have people behind helping other people. I don’t think there’s a more worthy cause than trying to feed people.
Have you got any more initiatives coming up towards Christmas?
We’ve got the fundraiser with Roker Report throughout December. We will be back outside A Love Supreme on December the 12th for
the match against West Brom (it’s a Monday night), and we’ll be outside collecting food then, so we will be needing you to spread the word! What’s nice is the community spirit, especially around the fans. I think it’s important that the club works alongside the fan groups, it’s been getting better recently. The likes of ALS, Roker Report, Spirit of 37, BLC, Red and White Army, I mean, there are multiple excellent fan groups and I think if they can influence somebody to even just give £1 it just allows us to have that breathing space. It’s been a really hard year; we are not a cash rich charity. We have self- sustained for three years, just really managing with what we needed and we think helping people is important.
Finally, what are your biggest challenges?
When I see our volunteers cry and show emotion because sometimes we have people show up here who are homeless soaking wet to the skin and freezing shivering with the cold. It’s soul destroying but when you get them into a hotel or get them sorted somewhere there’s just that sense of relief. I just can’t tell you how it feels, you just helped that person who is at rock bottom with nowhere else to go.
ALOVESUPREME | ISSUE260 | 33
BY DANIEL MCCALLUM