Our Story So Far with the Homeless of Nairobi

When you’re involved in a food business, and you get to think about food every day, it can escape your awareness that there are people out there who don’t get the great privilege of being sure of the next meal. 

M & HoN

My great friend Marian suggested that Greenspoon should perhaps consider giving back to the Homeless of Nairobi, in the form of food, this festive season. She’s a wise one M, and she is often the sage I turn to when I need advice about how to do things better. We’d been talking about the Christmas Love Project, which you can also get involved with, but with this idea I felt a real connection. 

From there, it was fairly straightforward to set up the connection with Clifford Oluoch at HoN, discuss what they needed, and what we could do, and get the ball rolling. You’ll probably have seen that as you check out, we invite you to donate a meal to HoN for just Kshs 100, and we’ve seen huge results with that already. 

What we’ve achieved so far

Just this month (1st – 7th December) our customers have provided 333 meals. Last month, starting on 13th November, our customers provided 992 meals! This is incredible!

Then our Volunteering Committee (it’s just three of us, but that’s enough to get going!) went down to Homeless of Nairobi to get involved. They took some legs of lamb that were too close to expiry and hadn’t yet sold, and a lot of cabbage, and spent time chopping the cabbage and cooking together with the charity workers who do this work day in day out. Julius and Francis sent us images and videos as they went along, showing the rest of our team what it was really like on the ground. About 180 homeless people turned up that day for lunch, and were fed meat for the first time in months. The response was amazing, and Julius and Francis were able to spend time serving out meals and talking with the homeless to understand their stories. You could almost see the enthusiasm and love emanating from the two of them as they returned to the warehouse later that afternoon, and then told us more about it the following morning. 

During his time with HoN, Julius realised that one of the major challenges for them, as well as for the hostel where some homeless have been taken in, is the provision of a variety of fresh vegetables. They do a lot with cabbage, but there could be scope for something else. 

Going a step further to get fresh veggies

We decided to reach out to our amazing supplier Freshly Kenya, and see if they might be able to donate some veggies, and here’s the list they sent us this morning – just look at those quantities!

• 50kgs of Eggplant (this may be a one-off)
• 20kgs of Tomatoes
• 50kgs of Kales
• 50kgs of Courgettes
• 50-100kgs of Pak Choi leaves
• 20-50kgs of Runner beans
• 50kgs of Fine beans

These veggies will be delivered to Deep Sea Slums today and tomorrow, for the homeless of Nairobi to enjoy for lunch this week, and for many of the children who have been rescued from a life on the streets to enjoy at the hostel. We’re overwhelmed by the generosity of Freshly in giving us these fresh products for the homeless, and can’t wait to see the look on their faces when we deliver them!!

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