A Brief History
The Peoples’ Kitchen was started in 1985 by Alison Kay (who was then in her 70’s).
Alison began in a humble way, sitting with alcoholics and homeless men in the city centre. After many hours of patient visits the barriers of mistrust started to fall away, conversations began and so was born the Peoples’ Kitchen. From this simple beginning she moved on to bring some soup and sandwiches from her own home to share with her new found “friends” and four men turned up to the first meal which was served behind Christ Church in Shieldfield.
By August, Alison had developed a band of several other helpers which was just as well as the number of "friends" had grown to 40. After looking through the city for a suitable venue, Alison and her band discovered a suitable space under the railway arches next to Dean Street. Alison and friends inaugurated the very first People’s Kitchen under a railway arch and offered food, clothes and a warm fire - welcoming anyone who came in peace without asking any questions about their background or how they came to need our help. The Sunday Breakfast run began in 1990. This provided a warm breakfast of porridge, cereals, sandwiches, tea and coffee for about 80 people. Many of these had “slept rough” and the breakfast run brought welcome relief to many before the shops and shopping centres opened.
The first base was opened in Blenheim Street four years later in a shop property that was vacant but scheduled for demolition with the planned road improvements. This enabled us to offer meals three nights each week but the size of the premises limited the number of people we could accommodate at any time.
In 1997, we acquired our current centre with the purchase and refurbishment of the Christian Scientist building in Bath Lane. A lot of fund raising and hard work went into the re-design of this grand building turning it into a fitting home for our services. Named after our founder, The Alison Centre has provided thousands of meals for thousands of needy people. At present, the centre is open for four sessions per week and we also undertake three sessions of street outreach often feeding over 100 people in a session.
Many volunteers have come and gone in our history. It would be unfair to single out anyone. Each has brought such tremendous enthusiasm, skills, humour, sensitivity but above all the love of others that has made the Peoples’ Kitchen such a success.
