Coffee 4 Craig

This fabulous charity supports homeless people living on the streets of Manchester by providing a home-cooked meal, access to a medic, a shower and barbering service, advice –  and a team of friendly staff and volunteers.

Coffee4Craig is open every single evening and works with other support organisations across the city. The team is often mobilised to support the Homeless Partnership and Manchester City Council to offer an out of hours service for referrals and allocations into accommodation when the temperature drops below zero. This is commonly called SWEP (severe weather emergency protocol) or CWP (cold weather procedure).

​The charity was set up by Risha and Hendrix Lancaster in September 2013, the day after they lost their brother, Craig White, who died while street homeless of a heroin overdose in Cardiff.

They started giving out coffee on the streets of Manchester the next day and were surprised by the demand and it grew from there. Risha and Hendrix and they felt a calling into the homelessness sector and the charity has grown from strength to strength. It now boasts former Happy Monday’s star Bez as its patron.

Since receiving a grant from the Delamere Dairy Foundation the charity has been able to offer a fortnightly Podiatry service seeing up to five people a night.

“The project has exceeded our expectations with our guests taking up the offer almost immediately.

“Our regular medic team have also reported that fewer people have been visiting with foot-related issues. Overall, this project has been a huge success, and we are so grateful to have been given the opportunity to add this string to our bow.”