Soup kitchen 'crushed' by need for new home

"This year has been full of so many incredible highs and so many lows," says the owner of a charity that is searching for a new home.

Meryl Praill, from Newbury Soup Kitchen in Berkshire, said the site where they have been based for four years, will soon have a new landlord and it is "highly likely he is going to need our space" by March.

She said she is "utterly crushed" after they have been unable to secure a new storage building and offices for next year.

"I'm trying not to worry about it too much because things do come along," Ms Praill said.

She admitted: "I don't know what's going to happen to our storage, parking, the office spaces and everything around that next year."

Ms Praill reassured listeners of BBC Radio Berkshire that the charity, currently based at Hambridge Lane industrial estate, will "make it work".

"The food provision wont stop and that's the most important thing," she said.

She added that they are willing to work from home if the necessary.

Last week the team received an email from the Channel 4 show, The Last Leg, inviting them to accept an award on the programme on Friday.

Ms Praill said her and her team initially "thought it was a scam".

She said she then received contact from the show confirming that they had been awarded the programme's "Hans Award" named after the mascot for the Paralympic Games Paris 2024.

"I get quite emotional because I can't believe that a charity that I set up from a personal situation, where I was thinking I was just going to feed people two hours a week, to what it is now, I never would've imagined," Ms Praill said.

Newbury Soup Kitchen provides a freshly cooked and prepared hot three-course meal every Thursday, Wednesday and Saturday evening for the homeless, vulnerably housed, less fortunate and the homeless on the streets of Newbury and West Berkshire.

You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.