Junior Chamber International has teamed up with Greggs to help two local homeless charities to feed homeless people in Belfast. Homelessness has a devastating impact on the local community. There are about 15,000 homeless people and individuals in Northern Ireland and it is JCI’s aim to help make the connections with those charities in need and the corporate organisations that are willing to help. John Rea, JCI Belfast said, “As soon as I seen the advertisement for the unsold food programme, I knew this was an initiative my team at JCI would been keen to get involved with. My colleague Angela set up meetings with two local charities, along with Stephen store manager of Gregg’s Castle Lane, to discuss the possibility of making this vision real.” Greggs plc is the leading bakery food-on-the-go retailer in the United Kingdom. Greggs Food Donation Programme supports good causes by donating unsold food to those in need including the vulnerable and homeless. More information can be found here: greggsfoundation.org.uk/unsold-food-donations. Raymond Reynolds, Greggs said: “As a responsible business, we believe in doing the right thing and a big part of that is supporting the communities in which we operate. We aim to donate as much unsold food to charity as possible, including soup kitchens, food banks, and shelters for the homeless and vulnerable. We are proud to support both of these charities and do our bit to help those affected by homelessness.” The Welcome Organisation has been collecting leftover food since August 2017 and Kieran Hughes, Fundraising and Marketing Manager at The Welcome Organisation said, “We are delighted to be teaming up with Greggs to receive unsold food from the Castle Lane store,” “It costs around £3 per day to feed a homeless person in our Townsend Street Drop-in Centre. At the centre we provide breakfast, lunch and dinner to some of the most vulnerable people in our communities. The food donated by Greggs will go towards those meals, as well as allowing us to provide food for our Street Outreach service, which runs from 7am-1am every day. Without the support of organisations like Greggs, and the general public, we would be unable to provide the level of service that we do to people affected by homelessness. I would like to thank Greggs and JCI Belfast for their invaluable support.” Brian Shanks, Corporate Partnerships Manager at Simon Community said, “We are thrilled and so appreciative to be a recipient of these generous donations from Greggs Castle Lane store. When people arrive at our accommodation projects, they often have nothing but the clothes they are standing in and a small bag of belongings. Making them feel welcome, supported and ‘at home’ for however long they are with us is so important, and providing a decent meal to make them feel more like themselves is a big part of that welcome. It is only with the support of local businesses and the general public that we are able to offer this and so we want to say a huge thank you to Greggs and JCI Belfast for this fantastic commitment.”