MIDLAND LANGAR SEVA SOCIETY
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Mission Statement
Provide hot food and drink to those living on the street, schools, safe houses and those on the poverty line. To develop interventions that encourage a journey of change. MLSS operates on Sikh based ethos, where we help and support all people regardless of social status. Langar is the term used in the Sikh religion or in Punjab for general or common kitchen / canteen where food is served for free, without prejudice regardless of race, religion, and background.
About This Cause
The founding members (trustees) saw a need in their local community and since 2013 Midland Langer Seva Society (MLSS) started to meet the needs of those vulnerable people. We have been supplying hot and cold food and drinks to people who, for whatever reason, have found themselves hungry and struggling to feed themselves. Speaking to our guest, we soon recognised how great the need was and that giving food was just the portal to seeing the huge deficit our beneficiaries were experiencing within society. As a result of what we were being asked for, we began collecting and distributing clothing, blankets and personal hygiene products with our eyes still being opened to the chaos and trauma people were experiencing on a daily basis. We saw how feeding people and meeting their basic needs opened up avenues for us to assist in other ways. Food has always been a great way to establish and maintain relationships. Our beneficiaries know that they will receive a warm welcome, respect and basic human interaction that has been so lacking in their lives. We recognise that our guests have complex needs that require specialist support and so we contacted statutory agencies and other charities with specialisms, to sign post or introduce our guests to people or agencies that can help deal with some of the holistic issues that contributed to their situation. We have received anecdotal feedback from our guests, who have said without our help they would have struggled to cope, or may have taken their own lives. We have been conducting surveys at our support sessions, to identify the type of crisis and issue that has led people becoming our guests. These surveys have helped to shape our interventions so that they are relevant to the needs of people struggling with everyday life. Working directly in the community has encouraged local people to volunteer from all walks of life, cultures, religious beliefs and socioeconomic backgrounds. Our volunteers from the local area have seen the need in their community and MLSS has brought them together for a common purpose. We identify other charities and organisations that were doing similar work and liaise with them to fill the gaps and not duplicate the support. This has led to MLSS increasing our support sessions from 3 to 5 evenings a week in some areas. We work alongside other charities who are struggling to cope with the demand, to ensure they can continue to operate a service. For instance in Leicester we take surplus food to the Dawn Centre or YMCA hostels, who work to give homeless people a roof over their head and support to break the cycles of homelessness. We work with Housing options and homeless charities to become pathways to their services by supporting our guest through the referral process. Recently we have seen in the news how homeless and marginalised people have been treated by some as subhuman, through violence and discrimiantion. We have given the communities in which we serve, a different perspective and confidence to act, which is countering the perception about these vulnerable people. We have seen communities unite by donating, volunteering and accepting people as part of society, not a blight on society and a genuine want to help and support each other. We have seen local businesses contribute by donating food, clothes, toiletries, and essential items that we can give out to our guests. We are developing a network of other charities that can provide showers, haircuts, dentistry and mental health support, accommodation and other basic needs that we all take for granted. We are also working with other homeless charities that supply food to ensure things are not duplicated but coordinated to ensure maximum coverage of an area. We have interest from several charities who are interested in developing a central warehouse distribution point, that would increase partnership working and reduce waste and overlap. We recognise that just feeding people is not a long term solution and we have already completed a pilot scheme in The Black Country with a community bid, providing job clubs and access to IT equipment, for people to have the same advantages that most of us take for granted. We are forming partnerships with other agencies to develop pathways to employment, accommodation and healthier living. We want to equip people with the knowledge to feed themselves, budget effectively to manage on the income they receive and take responsibility for their own lives. People have told us they want to contribute to society but don't feel empowered to do so, we aim to increase their self esteem and support them to achieve this. We feel all our guests have the potential to change no matter what their circumstances. By showing them respect and listening to them, we can encourage people to revisit goals they had in life, develop their strengths by connecting them to resources in their community, that can be useful to create links to support and interventions. This increases a person's hope and self belief and opens up choices in dealing with their situation and circumstances. At this time all the great work we have achieved, has been completed by the founding members (trustees) giving up their time to establish and make an impact. However due to the expansion and growing need, the charity requires paid key staff and a base from which to conduct this great work. At this time, each team has to source their own food, clothes, equipment and other items needed by our guests. This is not only time consuming, but is not a cost effective use of the donations, as some teams can receive generous support but do not have the capacity to store the extra, while other teams can receive insufficient for that days need. A central warehouse would mean we could collect and store donations. A full time member of staff would coordinate locations times dates and deliveries required. They would liaise with our partners in the community such as Fareshare and food banks to organise delivery of stock. We are currently operating in 26 cities and are constantly receiving requests to set up in other areas. Our clients come to us mainly through direct referral, we identify an area and work with the local authority to use a space where we can serve food to those in need or living on the street. We also contact other support services such as housing providers, homeless shelters, housing options and other charities working in the area to ensure that our support sessions are well publicised to those who need them. We soon find that the word spreads amongst the vulnerable people in the area that we are there and that they can receive help. We are never short of people to serve. A typical session consists of hot vegetarian meals served in individual containers with a choice of menus, tomato pasta sauce, pizza, sandwiches, hot and cold drinks and fruit. People are encouraged to take a meal and if they would like to chat to someone, we have people on hand to listen. We are dealing with people who have complex lives so we ensure that we have clear safeguarding policies and procedures in place as well as information to sign post our clients to agencies that have the expertise to support them. Our experience shows that people who need our service usually have low self esteem, are scared, and do not believe they have any worth in society. By offering food or even just looking someone in the eye, it shows people we care and have respect for the person they are, just a simple smile can change someone's day. We receive donations of food from local food business, supermarkets and individuals who want to give back and help others. We also partner with local food banks and Fareshare to establish a regular supply of quality ingredients then using the local gurdwara to cook and prepare to the highest standards of food preparation. By this system of work we are ensuring that the community is aware and not ignoring the crisis of food poverty and the difficult situations people face living on the streets. We also recognise the issue of food waste and have started to partner with large stores to collect food most evenings that they would otherwise send to landfill. We then redistribute to housing projects, hostels and charity kitchens which provide meals to vulnerable people. During the feeds we are interacting and speaking to our guests, looking them in the eye and smiling. Some of them have not had even this basic human interaction for a long time. We can then build a relationship with the people we serve, creating trust and giving back some dignity. Due to this approach we have found that our guests become more willing to accept interventions that can lead them out of the life many feel trapped in. We have seen many people lifted out of poverty and away from addictions that go on to contribute to society and their immediate community. Our interactions also enable us to conduct surveys and gather data that we use to lobby and inform local decision makers and councils. We use this data to shape services that are needed in the area and direct financial streams to where they are most needed. We also review our service and use this data to improve and target gaps.