Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Free meals for homeless in Perth throughout January after fundraising effort

Staff member Lisa Paterson and service user Darren Oakes at the CATH centre.
Staff member Lisa Paterson and service user Darren Oakes at the CATH centre.

A fundraising cash boost has allowed a Perth homelessness charity to provide free meals throughout January at their busy day centre.

Churches Action For the Homeless (CATH) will be providing breakfast, lunch and dinner free to service users throughout next month, funded by the five figure sum raised by their annual sleep out in November.

The total is still being tallied up by the Fair City charity, but bosses believe this year’s event, which saw more than 120 participants sleep rough for a night outside St John’s Kirk, will see the most money raised so far.

Along with free meals for service users, the money will go towards the activity programmes aimed to help the physical and mental health of service users as well as education programmes.

On top of this core work, money is being spent on projects like CATH’s 24 Days of Christmas.

The schedule saw staff take on a range of festive tasks such as wreath making, baking and making non-alcoholic mulled wine every day through Advent.

CATH services manager Graham Taylor says that this is in a bid to embrace the festive period rather than shy away from it.

He said: “I used to work for a drug and alcohol team and we never put a Christmas tree up so that service users could get away from Christmas.

“For some people it’s the best time of year and it’s exciting, but for people battling with addiction, it’s the opposite.

“But here, we’ve said that there’s no point in trying to escape Christmas as there is no getting away from it. Instead, we’ve tried to embrace it.

“We had 31 people here for Christmas dinner and lots of volunteers from outwith the charity.

“Usually we ask service users to contribute something towards the meals here if they can but January is a tight month for everybody so we’re pleased to be able to put meals on for free. ”

Service user Darren Oakes has thanked all the organisations and people who have supported the charity throughout the year.

The 46-year-old Liverpudlian said: “It’s been great here and everyone has been so welcoming to me and my partner, especially as we’re not from Scotland.

“If it wasn’t for all the donations, I don’t know how this place would keep going, it’s so busy.

“We’re not having to pay for any meals all through January. That’s fantastic.”