A church in Salford is continuing to provide warm spaces after the Christmas period.
The Elmwood Church, Eccles Old Road, offers people of all ages the opportunity to come out of the house and be welcomed into a friendly environment.
The church offers people a free lunch of sandwiches and soup, as well as allowing people to have as many hot drinks as they desire.
Fran Townsend, one of the volunteer organisers of Elmwood Church, spoke about her involvement in the Warm Spaces. She said: “Last September the issues started, and we thought that people would struggle with heating going up in particular and food. We launched it in November and trialled it until Christmas, and it was successful.”
And from the initial success of the Warm Space it continued.
She added: “We are all struggling in life at the moment and the church is always here for everyone.
“We could take on more people, we’d love more, but we can’t force them to come.”
Since the project restarted this year, the church promoted the Warm Spaces all over social media, to great success. Last Sunday saw an increase in families attending the Warm Space, that included 13 adults and 14 children.
Ms Townsend continued: “We’ve got friendly people to talk to you we can introduce you to new people. And you can save some money in the process.”
The Warm Space is very important to people like long-serving member of the church, 90-year-old Joyce Ruleman.
For the past 70 years, has been apart of the church and spoke about the benefit of the project. She said: “I come to the warm space I love the company and I go to a different table each time.
“It’s so easy and calm, there’s no loud music which I like.
“I can talk to people better when there is no background music. You can sit as long as you like there’s no time limits.”
With the volunteers offering conversation to all guests of the Warm Space, Joyce spoke about the importance of the company she receives. She continued: “I do live alone but it’s nice to come here for some company.”
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