Everyone helps on Cardiff 'soup run'

I was very interested in Michael Duggan's article of March 1, "Hot soup for the 'skipperers.' " Here in Cardiff we too have a "soup run" which goes out every night along the lines described by Michael Duggan.
In addition, we have a soup kitchen in an old warehouse which opens at about 7.30 every evening and remains open until we either run out of soup or customers — or both! The soup kitchen is primarily for those men sleeping rough who, for obvious reasons, prefer to keep their whereabouts a secret.
Like the St. Mungo Community Trust we are interdenominational; for instance, there are three priests working on the "soup run" together with members of the Salvation Army. There are also ordinary lay people who may have no Christian beliefs at all and a few students. Our funds come from people who get to know about our work and wish in some way to contribute. We have never made an appeal, but yet, somehow, we have never gone short.
What are we doing for these men? We hope very soon to open a shelter, but .until that time comes we do our best to clothe them and feed them and, in some cases, restore them to a normal existence. Many of the men we meet at night have at one time led normal lives, somewhere they have a wife and family, and at some time in their lives they have come up against a crisis which they have just not been able to face.
Many men, too, answer to the description of the man in the song "The Streets of London." It is not only in London where lonely men are to be found drifting around the streets and relying upon the inevitable drink to be their one companion.
All over the country the problem is to be found, but as long as there are people prepared to go out every night to help these men, they have a chance and opportunity to fight their way back into society. Some, the vast majority, are unequal to the struggle but they know at least they have friends on the "soup run."
(Fr.) Christopher Delaney Chairman, Cardiff "Soup Run." Saint Mary's Priory, Talbot Street, Canton, Cardiff.