THE Callington Soup Run sees a dedicated team of volunteers heading out onto the streets of Plymouth to provide food, help and support to homeless people.

There have been soup runs operating in the city for at least 17 years, and the fact that Callington has its own branch of volunteers is the fact that former councillor of many years standing Jeremy Gist and his daughter Tamara became involved in the Plymouth soup runs operated by the Salvation Army at an early stage.

Jeremy told me that “because I talk a lot”, people around Callington were soon wanting to find out more about the soup runs and how they could get involved too. In the end there were enough helpers coming forward that Jeremy was able to go to the Salvation Army and ask if they could start a standalone Callington Soup Run group, and that started around 15 years ago.

Today the Callington Soup Run operates on a regular rota from the Shekinah organisation’s premises in Plymouth. Shekinah is part of the Plymouth Alliance of groups working to provide opportunities and support for the homeless of the Plymouth area. Each soup run team is an independent group while being members of the Alliance, and Jeremy mentioned that another South East Cornwall organisation providing volunteers on soup runs were members of the Liskeard Lighthouse Community Centre CIC (community interest company). As well as Shekinah and the independent soup run teams other organisations making up the Plymouth Alliance are BCHA, Hamoaze, Harbour, Livewell South West, Path and The Zone.

The Plymouth Alliance framework means that the Callington Soup Run volunteers work on a regular, set rota worked out a long time in advance, with their regular runs generally always being on a Thursday.

The Plymouth Alliance also has regular meetings of those involved in the various soup runs plus a secure blog and other information and support systems. This means that if one group can’t go out on the streets to help the homeless on a particular day for some reason then another group will be able to fill the gap. Those involved also know that their soup run will always begin on their particular evening in the city’s Mayflower Street.

The core members of the Callington Soup Run team are Jeremy and his wife Karen, along with longstanding Soup Run supporters June Trevithick (who, along with Jeremy recently received a Callington Town Council Citizen of the Year award on behalf of the Soup Run team), Jamie Dowdall and his son Thomas, Cllr Andrew Long, Andrew and Emma Burnard, and Ryan Giddy. These people all have specialist knowledge of particular problems that homeless people may have, so there are generally at least six members of this core group on Callington Soup Run turns.

Hot meal

However, in addition they are sometimes joined by other people too, such as members of the Callington Lions. In fact Jeremy says he has a waiting list of people wanting to join the team. He added that South East Cornwall MP Sheryll Murray had been out with them a few times, and there are quite a number of other people who come along on a regular basis.

In past years the Callington Soup Run team have been involved in preparing and providing Christmas dinners for the homeless, complete with all the trimmings such as pigs in blankets and Christmas pudding to follow the main meal, but this year their nearest city run to Christmas is Thursday, December 16, so they won’t be involved in providing actual Christmas dinners this time around.

However, they always provide a hot meal – pasta Bolognese is apparently a particular favourite at the moment – together with other food such as crisps and biscuits.

Callington Lions are a major sponsor of the Soup Run, as are Callington Rotary Cub and Callington Freemasons. The town’s Tesco store has also provided support in the past, and Callington-based The Cornwall Bakery regularly provide boxes of Cornish pasties for the homeless. There are also many individuals who contribute, including totally anonymous people who regularly provide donations.

Jeremy regularly tours the local area giving talks on the Callington Soup Run to organisations such as WIs and other ladies’ groups. He has been left touched by how they will often have a whip-round after his talks and sometimes the amounts raised can be quite substantial. A great supporter in a different way is Dogsbodies pet shop in New Road, Callington, which has been very good about donating pet food, as the Soup Run feeds homeless people’s animal companions as well.

Donations

In addition, there are regular donors meeting the great need for clothing such as hats, gloves, socks and new underwear for both men and women homeless people – indeed there is one lady who is so generous of her time about knitting hats and gloves that Jeremy joked that she must knit ‘like a machine’.

They were fortunate during the COVID lockdowns that Jeremy’s insurance business – Gist (Insurance Brokers) Ltd, based at 53-54 Fore Street, Callington– remained open as an essential business, so when people were unable to leave donations of clothing and other items at charity shops a great number of black bags came to the Gist offices. One local woman who was closing a hotel donated 36 beautiful blankets which were much appreciated. Another great need is for good-quality sleeping bags, especially for the cold winter nights.

Admiration

Jeremy was a local councillor for 39 years and says that Callington has a wonderful sense of community and he is always full of admiration for the amount of support that the town’s Soup Run team receive from local people. He says that there will always be homeless people and rough sleepers that unfortunately anyone can find themselves in the position of being homeless – he has even known people like solicitors ending up in such a position.

Some people become rough sleepers due to circumstances involving their families, others because they want to escape ‘the system’, but if they end up needing help and support the members of the Callington Soup Run team will be able to put them in touch with the right people to help. The Alliance also assists with training in conflict resolution, mental health, drug and alcohol related matters.

Anyone wanting to give donations to the Callington Soup Run, whether in the form of funds or essential items of clothing like socks, hats, gloves, new underwear for both men and women, sleeping bags and blankets, or toiletries such as deodorants, can take them along to Gist (Insurance Brokers) Ltd’s offices at 53-54 Fore Street, Callington PL17 7DL.