Posted: 12/06/13
Trolleys full of kindness for homeless
Two Mansfield-based charities for the homeless have benefitted from the kindness of staff and students at West Nottinghamshire College this week.
Over 3,000 shopping basket items were collected by staff and students in what has been called the ‘554 Challenge’.
The initiative was the idea of Trudi Dean from the school of academic, public services and sports studies, who championed the project throughout. She developed tutorials on the subject of homelessness and shared this with tutors and support teams who then delivered it to every group across the college.
The aim was to fill five shopping trolleys with food and provisions which homeless people in the local community would be able to benefit from at The Halls Homeless Project and The Beacon Project.
The challenge, which is now in its third year, represents 5 teams, 5 trolleys, 4 the homeless, was devised by the school of learning and saw virtually every area of the college contribute something.
Once again, the challenge has been exceeded with food and toiletries spilling over into twelve shopping trolleys and eight baskets.
On Monday (10 June), Tony Lee, chairman at the Halls Homeless Project, based on Church Street visited the college’s Derby Road campus to collect the kind donations and thank everyone for their efforts.
Trudi Dean said: “The 554 challenge is now in its third year and is well established across the college. Each year the positive attitude and generosity of our students never fails to overwhelm me.
“The 554 challenge tutorial informs students about homelessness and where to get help which is really important as many are unaware that it’s an issue in our local community. Some of our students have been homeless and have benefitted from the work of these charities.”
Motorcycle student at the college’s Ashfield campus, Zack Hendry said: “You don’t really think about homelessness when you’re eating your food, but I feel grateful for what I’ve got now, knowing some have nothing.”
