Contract Natural Gas Ltd (CNG), has forged a partnership with community organisation Corrina’s Homeless and Vulnerable Project to help Harrogate’s most needy residents.
CNG has bought the voluntary organisation a £17,500 van to enable volunteers to collect surplus produce for the project’s Corrina & Friends Community Café, and to deliver furniture and food parcels to vulnerable people in Harrogate. The company, which provides natural gas to SME businesses throughout the UK, is based in the spa town.
Staffed by volunteers and operating on a ‘pay what you feel’ basis, Corrina & Friends will also receive weekly meat packs, cleaning products and an industrial fan for the café in Mayfield Grove, Harrogate.
CNG, managing director Jacqui Hall, said:
As a Harrogate employer we are passionate about supporting our local community and have long standing relationships with a number of charities and community organisations. We were impressed with the energy and commitment of the project’s founder Corrina Young to help the town’s most vulnerable residents. The initiative is already making a real difference and we want to support its growth to reach more people in need.
Corrina Young from Corrina’s Homeless and Vulnerable Project, which is currently awaiting charitable status, said:
We are overwhelmed by CNG’s generosity which will help us to expand our services. Harrogate may be the happiest place to live in the UK, but there are homeless and hungry residents, who through no fault of their own have fallen through the holes in the welfare support net.
With profits from the café we plan to extend our weekly free dinner to at least twice a week and to provide more emergency food parcels, clothing and furniture.
- With no set prices at Corrina & Friends café, customers pay what they feel the meal is worth or what they can afford. At the end of each day people who are homeless or vulnerable are invited to take away food pre-paid for by paying customers. Every Sunday the café serves a free two-course dinner to people in need.
- The voluntary initiative is attracting significant support from more than 30 local businesses, including NFU Mutual who is insuring the van provided by CNG.
- Founded two years ago by Corrina Young, Corrina’s Homeless and Vulnerable Project helps improve the lives of local people who are homeless or needy. We do that in a number of ways – from offering a free weekly two-course dinner in the café, to providing food parcels, toiletries, clothes, toys and furniture to Harrogate’s most vulnerable residents.
- Corrina & Friends Community café, staffed entirely by volunteers, opened in May 2015, uses donated surplus food which volunteer chefs turn into tasty meals sold on a ‘Pay What You Feel’ basis.
- With no set prices, customers pay what they feel the meal is worth or what they can afford. Customers can also pre pay for drinks and food which are then given away after 5pm, Monday to Saturday, to people who are homeless or vulnerable.
In the first four months of operation they have:
- Welcomed 4,589 paying customers in the café
- Provided 3,659 free meals and drinks to people in need
- Handed out 212 emergency food parcels worth between £15 and £30 each.
