The Manna Society
Contact
The Manna Society
12 Melior Street London SE1 3QP
Tel: 020 7357 9363 Option 3
The Manna Society has run the Manna Day Centre since 1982, supporting homeless people in the heart of London. The Manna staff and dedicated volunteers offer respect and loving care to those who come to the Day Centre.
On average, we cater for approximately 100-120 people per day – mostly men.
Approximately 50% of our service users are rough sleepers, 10% in secure socially rented accommodation and the remaining 40% in some form of temporary accommodation (hostels, friends & privately rented accommodation) - November 23 statistics.
The Centre is open seven days a week, 51 weeks a year, from 8.30am to 1.30pm, but the Centre workers arrive earlier to prepare the Centre for opening. Volunteers help in the kitchen, the clothing store and the computer room.
How you can help
We occasionally need volunteers to oversee our IT suite
Our IT sessions are a critical service which allows our service-users to access the internet – an essential part of our modern-day living. From 10.30am to 1:15pm, our service-users who are all affected by homelessness or poverty are able through this service to access the internet and reap its benefits, either for leisure activities, such as listening to music, watching exciting videos on YouTube, catching up on the latest football news, or for vocational activities, such as looking for a job or logging in online to comply with the requirements imposed on them by the Department of Work and Pension, if they’re in receipt of welfare benefits.
The job of the volunteer is to set up 12 laptop computers by first taking them out of the lockers, turning them on, inserting a password, and getting them ready for use when service-users show up at 10:30am. This initial set up takes between 15 and 30 minutes, which means we expect volunteers to arrive at 10:00am so that they can have enough time for setting up. The first session is from 10:30 to 11:30, followed by a 30 minute break. And the second session is from 12 to 1pm. Once the second session is over, the volunteer shuts down all the computers and put them back into the lockers for safekeeping. This last operation usually takes about 15 minutes.
All we ask from our IT volunteers is a friendly and responsive attitude and a basic understanding of how a computer works, i.e. switching on a computer and shutting it down, and internet browsing. This isn’t a teaching role at all, but a facilitator role, which allows our service-users to gain access to the World Wide Web and enjoy its benefits like the rest of society.
Contact sofia@teamlondonbridge.co.uk for more details about this opportunity.
Kitchen Volunteers (currently needed)
Regular kitchen volunteers help out in the kitchen, putting dishes through the dishwasher, etc. As we are open seven days a week we need kitchen volunteers every day. The hours are 9:00am to 1:45pm, and we are currently looking for weekend volunteers.
If you are interested in this, please contact Paddy our Administrator on 020 7357 9363 option 3 or mail@mannasociety.org.uk. Let him have a contact telephone number and which days you are available – bearing in mind we are open seven days a week – and he will put you on our kitchen volunteer waiting list.
Financial donations
You can support our work financially online at - https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/7580#!/DonationDetails
It costs approximately £550,000 per year to provide our services. In the 22-23 year we had a deficit of £30,000 and in the 23-24 financial year we have a deficit of £100,000. Any help that you can give to help us address this deficit would be very much appreciated.
Food and Clothing Donations
There are certain items of food and clothing that we are always happy to take. Please see https://www.mannasociety.org.uk/most-needed-items-list-march-2021/ for more information.
Trades and Services
We would be happy to have trades people on call should we need help with electrics, plumbing etc.
There are other ways to support The Manna Society - We would be happy for volunteers to raise funds for us. If you would like to do so, please contact mail@mannasociety.org.uk