Hereford Open Door

Hereford Open Door is a local charity working with homeless people in Hereford and Herefordshire. Originally set up in 1996 by a small group of volunteers to provide meals at Christmas, we have gradually morphed into a group of over 70 volunteers offering all-year-round support to rough sleepers, sofa surfers and those in need. We have been registered with the Charity Commission since 1998.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, we operated out of St Peter's Church House in the centre of Hereford providing cooked breakfasts and packed lunches on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. We would still open up for a week over the Christmas period supplying 3 meals/day including roast turkey dinner on Christmas Day (vegetarian alternative available). In addition, we kept a store of tents, sleeping bags, clothes, boots, toiletries and essentials for our guests and provided free shower and laundry facilities. We also offered regular free barber and podiatry sessions (the latter through the Forgotten Feet charity).

Since the pandemic lockdown in March 2020, we have been unable to operate our breakfast service from St Peter's Church House. Instead, we have redirected our resources to assisting other like-minded groups and, particularly, Herefordshire Council's efforts to reduce/eliminate homelessness (Project Brave). Some of the things we are doing at the moment with Herefordshire Council include purchase of: (i) microwave meals for distribution to newly homeless people put into temporary accommodation by the Council, (ii) tea/coffee/hot chocolate/biscuits/soup sachets for use in the Winter Shelter, (iii) breakfast vouchers/gift cards for the Winter Shelter residents, (iv) emergency shelters/sleeping bags

At the moment, we are not sure when things will return to normal. Hereford Open Door will, however, continue to use its resources (financial and volunteers) to help those unfortunate enough to find themselves homeless or threatened with homelessness.