Jewish friends launch initiative to provide homeless with care packs

A group of Jewish friends in London have come together to set up a scheme to provide the capital’s homeless with care packages to help those survive freezing temperatures.

The initiative, called Warm this Winter, provides packs including food, toiletries, thermals, flasks, blankets, sleeping bag and underwear to some of the 8,000 rough sleepers in London.

The friends were inspired to act, said co-founder Hollie Sassienie, and set up a Chuffed donation page to create 30 care packages in November.

“We were all really affected by the number of homeless people in London and wanted to do something about it,” she said. “After spending time talking to the recipients and seeing the overwhelming reaction and gratefulness, we decided what we had done was not enough.”

In January the group did another run delivering 100 care packs, and their next is set for 28 February.

“We set up to raise £5000 but well exceeded that raising almost £12,000,” said Sassienie. “This has all been done off our own backs and organised by us alone.”

The Warm this Winter group aims to do monthly deliveries and plans to expand the scope of the offering, using their contacts to take hairdressers on delivery runs “to do peoples hair and make them feel special”.