Oasis Coffee House Supporting The Homeless

April 19, 2015 by Ruth Fordham

Leigh-on-Sea is packed with coffee bars, cafes' and restaurants, Leigh Broadway is a buzz with people eating drinking and shopping.

However if you wander past The Grand Hotel and follow the road round, you come to a quiter part of leigh; Leigh Road. Along here you will find a cafe with a difference, The Oasis Coffee House, 189 Leigh Road.

At Oasis we run a scheme for suspended coffees/suspended meals, as well as collect food for Harp Charity.

Oasis gives its customers the opportunity to support the homeless, the hungry, the vulnerable, people who drift along on the edge of society and those visiting foodbanks; when you do your food shop, you could buy an extra item for HARP, The Southend Homeless Centre and drop it into Oasis.  We have a lovely customer who volunteers for HARP and several times a week, she takes all the things we have to the centre in York Road Southend. You can donate anything from a bag of sugar, shower gel, pasta, or beans. But, its our suspended coffees/meals that make us different to the other Leigh coffee shop.

When you pay your bill at Oasis you can make a donation for a suspended coffee or a suspended meal, as a guide we say £2.50 a coffee & £12.50 a meal, but we take any amounts. We have had customers donate 60p "put the change towards a suspended coffee" along with other people that just walk in and ask "can i give you this for a suspended meal" and its been £50. We use all the money for meals, allowing us to give any vulnerable guest anything they choose from our menu; any drink, plus a good meal, and a piece of cake. If they cant manage a cake we will wrap up something and give it to them to take away.

Last week we had a new guest. A lady came in, she was a rough sleeper and because our customers are so generous we were able to feed her. Later in the week i noticed the same lady hovering around a table outside on our patio looking longingly at some left over food. I approached her, told her to take a seat and asked her what she would you like to eat and drink. On this occasion, another customer said on paying his bill "can i pay that ladys bill too"? This has happened a couple of times for her. People are so generous and without their generosity we wouldnt be able to do what we do.

Later in the week i saw a man walking past carrying a blanket and a sleeping bag. I walked outside the cafe and could see him further down the road going down the bins. I went up to him "Hello my names Ruth, i work at the Oasis Coffee House up the road, if your hungry and thirsty we do suspended coffees and meals. That means you can have something to eat and drink, you dont have to worry about not having enough money". As i looked at him i could see he was quite young, he had bright blue eyes, the dark suntanned skin that rough sleepers have and a big mop of hair. He smilled and shook my hand "im Patrick" he said "thankyou, very much".

Its lovely being able to help other people less fortunate than ourselves. Leigh doesn't see that many homeless people, they are mainly in Southend, thats why we also support local food banks. HARP issue vouchers to the food banks which they give out to people who can then come into Oasis and present the voucher in exchange for a meal. We never turn anyone away and this allows the staff at Oasis the opportunity to approach those begging in the town and say "go along to oasis the coffee house, they will feed you," and we do.

So next time your in Leigh-on-Sea come on round to Oasis Coffee House, 189 leigh road, and see how we work. You can like us on facebook https://www.facebook.com/OasisTheCoffeeHouse?fref=ts and check us out on Tripadvisor.

Oasis the coffee house is owned and managed by Leigh Road Baptist Church (http://www.lrbc.org.uk) and its with the churchs support that we are able to do what we do. Our customers are very generous, we never turn any vulnerable person away. We encourage them to stay as long as they like, especialy when the weathers bad. "sit here, in the warm, have another drink" nothing feels better than the gift of being able to help another.

To read more about Harp and how you can help pleas visit http://www.harpsouthend.org