PAEvery year in Los Angeles’ Skid Row, there’s an Easter tradition to serve hot meals for the homeless, as well as handing out other items like shoes and Easter baskets.
Many people see the tradition as a way to help out those less fortunate than themselves, and give something back to the community by volunteering to help out for the weekend.
Being L.A., there’s no shortage of famous faces that appear every now and again, and this year hip hop superstar Pharrell Williams headed down to the Los Angeles Mission with his son Rocket to lend a hand dishing up the meals.
The Good Friday meal is an important Easter tradition for Skid Row, as TMZ reports. This year, around 4,000 people were served a hot meal consisting of pork with an apple glaze, King’s Hawaiian rolls, mac and cheese and a peach crisp dessert.
As well as food, Easter baskets and shoes are also given out to those who need them.
It’s not just Easter that people that celebs turn out for though, Pharrell heads down to the mission a few times a year to lend a hand.
PAOn the other side of the pond, a charity in Wales has introduced sleeping pods to give rough sleepers somewhere to shelter at night.
Amazing Grace Spaces have designed new sleeping pods for those who need them, offering warm, self-contained spaces with a bed, toilet and light to provide temporary accommodation for rough sleepers.
Speaking to the South Wales Argus, Stuart Johnson, the design and operations director for Amazing Grace Spaces, said:
People who are homeless are living everywhere. They are in parks, under bridges and in doorways.
These are not safe places to be. We want them to go somewhere safe. These people are not on the streets because of their own volition. They need our help.
Good morning! Day 3 is upon us already!…Caroline is available today between 11-2 to chat to anyone, or pop on down to see the Pods for yourselves if you've not yet had the chance. …
Posted by Amazing Grace Spaces on Saturday, 6 October 2018
In just a few months the new initiative has already had a positive impact in the area, with homeless people using the pods and business owners hosting the pods on their land.
One rough sleeper has even said they’ve stopped him committing crime, which he used to do just so he could have access to ‘a warm prison cell’.
If you have a story you want to tell send it to UNILAD via [email protected]
Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.