Italian restaurants launch new meal service to Portsmouth’s rough sleepers from St Agatha’s Church
Two of Portsmouth’s Italian restaurants want to offer a weekly meal service to the City’s rough sleepers starting this Monday 12th March from the Homeless Bus - Market Way, Portsmouth.
The Restaurants, O Sole Mio in Port Solent and Bella Calabria in North End, will launch this new service from the old route master bus, which is part of the Robert Dolling Project at 6pm tonight.
The restaurants are offering rough sleepers a freshly cooked main course, pudding and soft drinks. Initially providing the freshly cooked food once a month, the restaurants want to turn this into a weekly service and have urged other restaurants to get on board.
Gianni Vaccaro, the owner of the restaurants commented: “The recent cold snap acted as a stark reminder about challenges those sleeping rough in Portsmouth have to confront daily. I am delighted that I am in a position to help these vulnerable people and a great community led project and it would be great to see other businesses doing the same.”
Leo Ciccarone, a spokesman for the Robert Dolling Project commented: “We continue to be amazed by the generosity of local people and businesses. Almost everyday we get offers of help and support and now these two restaurants are helping to feed the City’s rough sleepers.
“I want to thank Gianni and his team for this incredibly generous gesture and I hope others will consider extending this service.”
The Robert Dolling Project was set up following a meeting between Father Maunder of St Agatha’s Church and a group local business people and councillors. They wanted to find a way to help the City’s homeless.
Among the top issues the Project identified is providing access to medical, psychological and addiction services. Rough sleepers are far more likely to have a diagnosed mental health problem, with one study suggesting the figure could be around 44 per nearly twice the rate amongst the general population.
While a survey by a leading homeless charity found four in 10 (41 per cent) have a drug problem and just over a quarter (27 per cent) have, or are recovering from an alcohol problem.
Worryingly people sleeping on the street are also 17 times more likely to have been victims of violence. More than one in three people sleeping rough have been deliberately hit or kicked or experienced some other form of violence, whilst the life expectancy of a homeless person is just 47.
The project is named after Father Robert Dolling, the priest of St Agatha’s between 1885-1895. A great social reformer he frequently challenged authorities to do more to improve the lives of his parishioner’s, including the appalling state of their housing, which he described in a book, Ten Years in a Portsmouth Slum, published in 1896.
The launch of the new service and the news that the project has finally secured insurance comes as Government figures show rough sleeping in England continues to rise. Between 2010-2017 it soared by over 169 per cent from 1,800 to over 4,700 on any given night.
And despite various Government initiatives, official estimates suggest that each year around 35,000 people will sleep rough.
Mr Ciccarone continued: “Once again I want to thank to Gianni, O Sole Mio and Bella Calabria for their kindness. I know we are looking forward to seeing all the amazing and delicious food that will be served over the coming weeks and months.”
He concluded: “The whole team at the Robert Dolling Project would also like to thank the many others gestures of support we have received, from laundry services to security. ”
Robert Dolling Project helping Portsmouth’s rough sleepers
Homelessness is a major problem in the UK. Government figures show rough sleeping in England has rocketed. Between 2010-2016 it soared by over 130 per cent from 1,800 to over 4,000 on any given night.
And despite various Government initiatives, official estimates suggest that each year around 34,500 people will sleep rough.
Rough sleepers are far more likely to have a diagnosed mental health problem, with one study suggesting the figure could be around 44 per nearly twice the rate amongst the general population.
While a survey by a leading homeless charity found four in 10 (41 per cent) have a drug problem and just over a quarter (27 per cent) have, or are recovering from an alcohol problem.
Worryingly people sleeping on the street are 17 times more likely to have been victims of violence, whilst their life expectancy is just 47.
Here in Portsmouth, official estimates suggest there are around 40 rough sleepers, however those working with the homeless say this figure is much higher.
In March 2018, we launched a new hot food service - Hot Food Mondays - which provides a delicious three course meal to around 45 rough sleepers every week. The meals are provided by local restaurants and volunteers connected with the project.
By the 10th December 2018, the Project had served over 1,700 people, more around 5,100 dishes.
But we want to do more. We are keen to develop medical and mental health services, while improving access to addiction services.
We want to do this by providing two therapy rooms adjacent to the Church. These can then be used by local community groups, statutory agencies and the clinicians that we are working with to improve the well being of Portsmouth’s rough sleepers.