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orw-1Volunteers delivered food and clothing to the homeless during the pandemic

As well as managing The Cuckfield, Lizi Arnold is proud to be part of another Wanstead icon, The Corner House Project, which is now a registered charity thankful for all the community support it receives

The Corner House Project was started in 2019 by a small group of local residents looking to help vulnerable people in east London. We started collecting clothing for the homeless and food for foodbanks and outreaches, among several other projects.

Since then, we have grown immensely, and our team of volunteers has grown with us. Gone from pubs and offices filled high with boxes of donations ready to be taken to the next homeless outreach, or food donations in spare bedrooms, we now have storage and regular collections.

Since the pandemic especially, The Corner House Project – combined with the power of Facebook’s Wanstead Community Hub and the Tin in a Bin Network – has helped thousands of people with food parcels, clothing and bedding, supplied the NHS with fruit and home-cooked meals, and helped other charities with donations too. Wherever the help is needed, we aim to do what we can. By adding to our already strong and amazing team, we’ve been able to achieve so much.

We are also now a registered charity, which is huge for us in terms of funding and support, and we are always looking into avenues for funding so we can continue to grow and help more people where it’s needed. What our team has achieved over the last year is incredible. We’ve turned pubs into clothing and food stores and supplied meals and food parcels. Only with the generous support of the community have we been able to do this. Wanstead is just amazing. You ask for a tin of beans, you get 500. And that’s why this works. The Corner House Project is a community project, not just for the homeless. We help where we can and how we can, with the support of our team and community.

So, what of the future of The Corner House Project? We will get better and bigger. Now that we’re registered and official, we can apply for funding for bigger projects, such as local events and homeless outreaches. We will continue supporting other charities, such as mental health charities and Lola’s Homeless wherever we can. We have big plans to come. After the pandemic, we expect to see an increase of those in need of help.

Anyone in the community is welcome to volunteer or fundraise for us.

One final point. While The Corner House Project was founded out of the beautiful Corner House on the corner of Grove Park and the High Street, it is not affiliated with Age UK or the Allan Burgess Centre and donations cannot be dropped there for safety reasons.


For more information on The Corner House Project and to get involved, email info@cornerhouseproject.org

Editor
Author: Editor