“Don’t walk past” is heading for 1,000 members on Facebook just nine months after it was launched.
Volunteers deliver free food to people on the streets of Salford and Manchester from brands such as KFC, Greggs, Tesco and Nandos and clothes are also funded by donations.
Jordan Parker, one of the lead volunteers, has told of some very cold days.
He said: “They are struggling, the clothes are wet, and they are absolutely freezing. We give them spare clothes to keep them warm, and we have also bought sleeping bags”.
“It all started with Ronnie (Hillyard), he was cooking food, along with a couple of ladies, making hot drinks and using his own car, and it just went on from there”.
But Ronnie could not do it all by himself, and needed to recruit new volunteers to keep the group going.
Jordan Parker got involved because of his cousin, and asked himself why he wasn’t doing it himself. His six-year-old son has also joined him.
Jordan manages a lot of the social media work for the group, but also goes out and meets the homeless as well. He recently got in contact with Manchester United player Angel Gomes, who retweeted their tweet, with more than 300,000 followers.
At the moment they have around 940 members on their Facebook-group, but how many of them are volunteers?
“At the minute there is around 50 volunteers, and we go out seven nights a week. We always try to improve in certain ways, we’re at the moment just using one car, so to get more cars in use will obviously help us,” he added.
The big aim is to not be doing the work they do today, and to keep the homeless to a minimum. This year, “Don’t walk past” gave a man a new flat, with a washing machine and a cooker, and he is now living in this flat instead of the streets. For the group to keep doing this, they truly rely on donations to survive. You can donate at this link here.
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