London and Slough Run: feeding homeless for 40 years

But it’s only since the pandemic that the need for their work has become ‘enormous’, says the man now at the head of it all.

The London and Slough Charitable Trust works day and night to get food, furniture and more to people in Slough and on the banks of the Thames. It’s a major operation that fuels the work of other charities and organisations all over the borough.

“I can work 18 hours a day,” says chair Malcolm Johnstone. “There’s packing food at night, driving in the morning and furniture delivery volunteers doing the shifts. No one is paid - most of this is done by people in full time work giving up their spare time.”

The charity began as a much smaller operation in 1984 after an encounter between its founder – the late philanthropist and educationalist Phyliss Wallbank – and a homeless man in London.

After leaving a theatre one cold evening, Phyliss was ‘perturbed’ to see a man bedding down for the night in a cardboard box, she wrote in an account now on the charity’s website.

“I couldn’t get him out of my mind and decided to go back up to London to take the man a hot drink and something to eat. My husband wasn’t at all keen on the idea thinking it might not be safe but I persuaded him to let me go.”

On later trips to the capital, Phyliss took it upon herself to share food with homeless people she met.

After telling a church friend Maura Cooper about it, together they began Monday evening soup runs to central London, later expanding to do the same in Slough. And that’s how the charity – then known as the London and Slough Run – began.

London and Slough Run founder Phyliss Wallbank (right) with charity trustee Nuala Fox (Image: London and Slough Charitable Trust)

Today it is known as the London and Slough Charitable Trust. But its volunteers still do weekly runs to Embankment in central London every Monday – taking food, drink, clothing and bedding.

But the operation is much expanded. The group now shares the same items with other groups in and around Slough – such as the Salvation Army and the YMCA – making seven deliveries a day.

“We are like a warehouse for other charities,” says Malcolm. “We think through us about 150 people a day get food for breakfast and lunch.”

Not only that, the charity also provides furniture to people who might have recently been given temporary accommodation by the council or on prisoner release.

And it even occasionally finds hotel rooms and accommodation for women not entitled to council support who’ve found themselves living on the streets.

Yet its only since the first coronavirus lockdown in 2020 that the operation grew to the size it is today, as more people needed help.

“From the very first day of covid is when we suddenly got enormous,” Malcolm said. “When covid came, homeless people were put into hotels on behalf of the government – but they weren’t being given food on behalf of the government.”

The charity found that people who depended on employment in and around Heathrow Airport needed support.

And although the experience of lockdown is now already fading into memory for many, he said the need hasn’t gone away.

The number of homeless families seeking help from Slough Borough Council has skyrocketed in the last year. In total there were 1,019 homeless households in Slough between January and March this year – up from 378 in the previous period last year. That's an increase of 169 per cent.

And that figure likely masks the true figure, with not every homeless person eligible for support from the council. Malcolm says it often falls to organisations such as the London and Slough trust and others to help them out.

Now – forty years after its launch – the London and Slough Charity Trust is holding a dawn walk to mark the anniversary and bring in new funds.

The walk at Dorney Lake starts from 5:30am on Saturday, September 7. You can register at https://londonsloughcharitabletrust.org