Milton Keynes meat company organises charity sleepout to help homeless people

A company famous for its cooked meats is organising a charity sleepout at its MK premises to help the homeless.

Cranswick Convenience Foods has joined forces with local homeless charity UnityMK, to raise awareness of the city’s homelessness crisis.

The Big Sleepout will take place at the company’s Snelshall West factory on Friday May 10 from 8pm to 6am.

Cranswick bosses are urging other local businesses, groups or individuals to take part of donate funds for the cause.

Participants, including MK’ mayor Mick Legg, will gather in the company car park and will be given just a piece of cardboard to slepp on.

Toilet and wash facilities will be available though, as will hot drinks, first aid provision and breakfast in the morning.

Sam Pearl from Cranswick said: “Homelessness can affect anybody and continues to be a big issue in Milton Keynes. New figures from UnityMK show that cost of living pressures are exacerbating the problem, forcing more people than ever before to seek help.

“We hope that this event will help to shine a light on the very real problems that people in the city are currently facing. It’s an issue that needs to be tackled urgently - locally as well as nationally - which is why the work that UnityMK does in supporting people who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness, through no fault of their own, is so vital.”

He added: “Our colleagues and management are committed to supporting UnityMK’s work, not just through financial support and hosting the Big Sleepout but through the volunteering, employment and upskilling initiatives that we run. We hope that our involvement in this event acts as a catalyst for other local businesses to get involved with this vital cause and prompts them to work with UnityMK to help reduce homelessness in Milton Keynes.”

Figures released by the charity Shelter last year show that the South East is second only to London for homelessness, with 8,610 people living in temporary accommodation or sleeping on the streets.

In Milton Keynes alone, the figures are stark with 10 new people becoming homeless each week and around 50 guests signing in to the UnityMK welfare centre at CMK each day.

The charity supplies around 238 evening meals a week to guests and uses 60 litres of milk and 40 loaves of bread a week.

It also runs a night shelter between November and April each year and this is always at capacity with 15 beds full every night.

Some 17% of night shelter guests during the 2023-2024 night shelter season were women.

Ria House, Fundraising Manager at UnityMK, said: “We’re truly grateful to Cranswick Milton Keynes, who are a long-standing partner of UnityMK and make a big difference to several areas of our charity. Not only do they support us financially, lend their team as volunteers, and run events for us, they also offer employment opportunities, without judgment or bias, for people who use our services.

“The Sleepout is the biggest event in our fundraising calendar as not only does it raise vital funds for our work, but also highlights the struggles of those who are homeless and sleeping in MK in a very real way.”

Anyone wanting to take part can sign up here.