How it all started
Big Fish 117 Ministries was founded in 2004 and originally we worked in communities where there are health and social inequalities. The heart behind the project, is to bridge gaps in communities and support people in situations where there is lack, poverty or need. By 2007, our large house in Camberley became a place of refuge and we have welcomed more than 500 homeless folk including youngsters, families, services veterans and street homeless adults. The vision for our work has expanded and we now deliver a range of community activities acknowledging and responding to the increasing homeless issue.
The original All Night Café service was a step toward a bigger vision to set up a twenty four hour service that would welcome veterans & homeless people in need and facilitate health & well being services, journeying with visitors towards hope and a better future.
Knowing the copied pandemic and restrictions we anticipate changes in our community and a change in how we respond to local need amongst older folk, single people and those isolated older adults.
The challenge ahead is to secure our own premises and resume our service and response to bridging some of the covid virus and resulting poverty and street homeless gaps. Its a real privilege to be part of this vision and the demand is great, we are getting busier each month as more people hear about us.
Since we started we have welcomed and provided food and refugee relief to well over a thousand people in need. On our busiest nights as a homeless service, we were welcoming and feeding thirty plus people each night, happy and awesome days, we are looking forward to resurrecting that needed service and being able to offer a warm welcome, good company and a safe place to be.
The Cafe’s and food outreach and refugeee relief biggest costs are hire, domestic supplies and maintaining the building, to ensure we sustain our service and support the homeless and local needy people long term.
If you are interested in supporting the All Night Cafe’, awesome – please get in touch to see how you or your organisation can get involved. We would love any help you might offer and are also keen to meet new volunteers, we are always very happy to receive donations of food and cleaning supplies.
