Soup kitchen 'overwhelmed' by appeal response

Sunderland Community Soup Kitchen will feed 120 people on Christmas Day

The boss of a soup kitchen which was struggling for funds said she has been "overwhelmed" by the response to its Christmas appeal.

Sunderland Community Soup Kitchen set a target of £10,000 to provide Christmas dinner and gifts to the city's homeless and reached it in four days.

The charity is now hoping the final total will exceed £20,000.

CEO and founder Andrea Bell said: "It's just been so lovely this Christmas, I am so grateful to the people of Sunderland."

The Christmas lunch is made possible thanks to an army of volunteers

The charity, founded in 2019 in an effort to combat hunger and poverty in the city, feeds 100 people four times a week and hosts about 120 people on Christmas day.

It costs approximately £11,000 a month to run.

"About a year ago it got to the point when I was quite panicky because donations had just dried up," Miss Bell said.

To bring in new sources of income, the charity has taken over the lease of a building next door to its kitchen and plans to rent out the space and sell vintage clothing.

The charity provides Christmas dinner and a gift to 120 people

"Given we've really struggled for donations recently, we thought we'd be lucky if we got anywhere near our target for our Christmas Appeal," Miss Bell said.

"When it went over £10,000 in just four days, all of us were just overwhelmed".

The donations included £2,000 from Sunderland football club owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus.

"The club's doing well, the city's buzzing and there's a little bit more to come in, so we have way more than we ever expected," Miss Bell said.

"We have enough for Christmas now so the extra will be used to help people during 2025, because we do this work week in, week out."