What We Do

Our History

In 1974, Michael Mulligan started a daily food handout, provided out of his pocket, from the back door of Bishop’s House in Northampton. From these humble beginnings, the kitchen has grown and developed its services, now welcoming approximately 100 people a day at it’s Ash Street premises.

Formally known as The Northampton Soup Kitchen, the centre went through many ideas for a more modern name that would symbolize the centre as it is today. We like to think that the centre gives the service users Hope and this was the name chosen by them.

Our client group includes:

* People who are homeless
* People with drug-related issues
* People with alcohol-related issues
* Street girls
* People with physical and mental health issues
* People who are generally down on their luck

Opening hours

Monday to Friday 8.30am - 1pm

We are the Big Issue supplier for the area; covering Northampton, Towcester and Bedford.

For drug users, we operate a needle exchange programme (daily 12.45 – 1pm) whereby the person can get new needles and safely dispose of old ones.

Hope Café

Free mugs of tea and coffee are served throughout the day. Meals are provided at an affordable cost.

We have a take-out service whereby each service user can take a bag of food away with them for a small fee. This includes two tins of food and a loaf of bread.

8.30 - 9.30am Full English Breakfast

11.45am - 12.45pm Lunch

Workshops

We like to provide activities that will engage our people with the centre and provide a fun atmosphere. Our existing programme of workshops and activities is as follows:

* Monday 11.15 - 11.45pm Basic computer lessons
* Tuesday 10am - 1pm Film morning
* Wednesday Morning Job Club (advice on how to find employment)
* Thursday Morning Football in the park
* 1.30 - 4pm Cookery workshop

We also like to hold games mornings and fun days for our people as well as outings.

Advice

We can offer advice and suggestions on where our people can go to get specialist help for example with housing.
There are various organisations which we signpost our people to.

Recreation

We have a games room in the centre where people can play table football and bar billiards.