Generous local companies including Brewers Home and The Ivy, Bill’s and Higgedy Pies have come together with volunteers from St Peter’s Church in Brighton to provide food parcels and furniture for clients of Route One, a mental health service run by BHT.
Brewers Home donated approximately £20,000 worth of brand-new furniture to clients living in Route One’s supported accommodation for people with complex mental health needs. Clients received armchairs for their rooms, and communal areas were improved with items like sofas, sideboards and dining sets. Friendly volunteers from St Peter’s Church distributed the furniture across Route One’s eight different properties, which together house sixty people.
San Sehjal, Operational Manager at Route One, said:
We are so grateful both to Brewers Home for their generous gift and to the amazing volunteers from St Peter’s Church who patiently carried furniture through narrow corridors and helped us to set things up perfectly. The furniture is of a very high quality and has made our clients feel really valued and cared about at a very difficult time.
St Peter’s Church volunteers have also worked with local restaurants that had to close over lockdown and others to create and distribute food parcels to Route One clients. Over a fifteen-week period beginning the week after lockdown began, they have delivered forty parcels a week to the project’s most vulnerable clients, containing foods, toiletries and treats. This has made a huge difference to people living at Route One, many of whom have been isolating or are on low incomes; they have described the support as making them feel loved and part of a community.
Richard Mayes, a Support Worker at Route One, said:
The food parcels were such a help for our most vulnerable clients during the lockdown. Not only were they providing practical support, but the presentation brought home the personal touch and helped our clients feel that others were thinking of them, which really lessened the sense of isolation so many were struggling with.
VHB, a client living at one of Route One’s properties said of the food parcels she received:
St Peters helped at a point when I was low and couldn’t get out. I’m so grateful and thankful for their generosity and kindness over such a tough time.
