Day 6/8 - 27Dec - Practicalities

Christmas day is over for another year and fatigue setting in it's a muted kitchen as we go head down and prep a fantastic hearty beef and vegetarian stew with lots of side vegetables. By this stage of the week our guests are into the groove and eating well, larger meals, more variety and very nutritious.

In front of house our volunteers are chatting with our guests around The Gate who are now more familiar and comfort with us and engaging in pastimes such as karaoke, bingo, football, jigsaws, chess, art, cinema and lots more.

This leads on to our guests being far more amenable and comfortable attending our AA and NA meetings which can be life changing for some of them, there is also help and advice on the practicalities of rehousing, travel and repatriation.

We provide, of course, the full range of NHS services with a backup transport team so guests in need get seen by volunteer doctors, dentists and opticians, usually hard to access during the year.

Manicures, pedicures, haircuts and massage are popular too and it's remarkable to see the transformations that take place during the week as new looks are launched with clean clothes from our storeroom.

Our chef has had to transfer to another London centre lacking a chef, so James has stepped in as acting-chef, a natural choice and school teacher by day, so we rally round him to get the meals ready.

We are cooking each day for the warehouse down the road who are running a huge logstical operation of just-in-time deliveries to all of our centres, they run a facilities team too who are experts in "fix-it"  coming out to repair things that just don't work in The Gate. 

We all can't operate without the Warehouse Team, they rarely get to meet our guests and work in a cold and cavernous warehouse and they depend upon The Gate for the meals that keeps them going, and going, and .
My 2019 Justgiving fundraiser: link

Last year's Gate Diary 2018 - link

Regards, Paul
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NB: These diary entries are written as a thank-you to everyone who has donated to Crisis At Christmas, would still like to, or just curious to know what happens behind the scenes.

I write this diary to let you know how we spend your money and to encourage you to keep supporting Crisis At Christmas as it depends upon your donations or volunteering to fund the huge Christmas operation and subsequent year round services 

 https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/llct2019  






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