A ‘WARM refuge’ is being organised to help Wellington residents cope with the coming winter months as the town faces up to a ‘perfect storm’ of escalating food and energy prices.

The Wellington Baptist Church refuge initiative will follow closely on the launch in Rockwell Green next month of the first of what is expected to be a wave of local pantry schemes to help feed hard-up families.

Baptist minister the Rev Sam Griffiths said the ‘warm refuge’ was likely to start in October and would see the church hall opened from 9am to 7pm on Thursdays for anybody who wanted to use it. Rev Griffiths said: “This autumn and winter many in our community will struggle to heat their homes and afford to eat.”

Church says winter warm refuge ‘just has to be done’

Rev Griffiths added: “Like everyone else we woke up in the New Year after Covid and thought ‘this is tough work’.

“Maybe some economists may have seen it coming, but most people would not have seen this perfect storm coming over the hill and the stark realities of people having to make tough choices which is now very real.”

He said the church was aware of local food projects but there seemed to be a gap in provision where something was needed to help people stay warm.

Mr Griffiths said: “The idea is that people can come in and there are a number of activities they can engage with or they can sit and do their own thing.

“Refreshments will be provided and at lunchtime there will be a small lunch for them, and then activities again in the afternoon.

“By suppertime, or after school time, families will come in and there will be space for homework and we can provide an evening meal and then they go home.

“We are blessed with great facilities here and the kitchen is superb so we are really in a good place to initiate this project and provide catering and warmth.

“Anyone is welcome, it is an open invitation. We have no plans to start trying to means test people.”

Mr Griffiths said for the moment the church did not have a budget for the project, but knew it was something that ‘just has to be done’ and he was sure ‘the generosity of the community’ would help.

He said about 25 offers of help had been received from volunteers but more were needed to allow a rota to be organised and anybody who was interested should email [email protected].

Like many churches and charitable groups after the coronavirus pandemic, the numbers of people volunteering had fallen by about 30 per cent, he said.

The Baptist ‘warm refuge’ will continue throughout the autumn and winter until a review at the end of next March or beginning of April.

“We will see how things go and recognise we are just scratching the surface and take it from there and see what else we can do,” said Mr Griffiths. We have never done anything like this before and I think we need to get the system working and see where it takes us before we think about doing more days.”

The initiative will also feature in discussions at a Wellington cost-of-living summit being organised by the town council to co-ordinate community efforts to help people through the worst social crisis for generations.

The round-table discussions will see the council bring together a range of voluntary groups which provide community services to provide councillors with an overview of how funding could best be directed to support them.

Anybody that is interested in volunteering should email: [email protected]