When I first spot Lorraine Kelly, 58, the chatty Glaswegian is ladling up celeriac soup in a bright yellow apron, beaming from ear to ear. Celebrity chef Aldo Zilli takes each bowl from her and seamlessly serves it to a series of tables in the soup kitchen where I’m sitting.
Kelly has been working with the charity Centrepoint for a number of years now, she tells me, because “an awful lot of people these days are only two or three pay packets away” from being homeless.
While homelessness has not impacted her or her family directly, it’s something the TV presenter has been more and more aware of since moving to London 13 years ago. “You lose your job, you lose your home, you lose everything and you can find your whole world tumbling about your ears,” she says. “And I just think we should help each other, I know it sounds terribly simplistic but it’s true.”
Kelly is supporting Centrepoint’s Big Broth campaign this year, which aims to encourage people to throw soup parties in offices and homes across the UK on Friday 2 November in one big ‘Soupathon’.
Each individual soup party acts as an opportunity to raise money to help homeless people aged 16- to 25-years-old into work and find housing. The hope is that thousands of parties will be held across the country, with 30,000 bowls of soup expected to be served up in what’s a bit of fun but also for a worthy cause.
“Everybody’s eye is off the ball now with Brexit, which is terrible."”
- Lorraine Kelly
After ladling up broth at the charity’s Soho-based soup kitchen in London, Kelly sits down to tell me that everyone has a duty to help with the nation’s homelessness crisis.
Asked if she thinks the government is doing enough, she replies: “No, they aren’t. Everybody’s eye is off the ball now with Brexit, which is terrible. It means that all these other things that are so important – like people having roofs over their heads and jobs – are being pushed back.
“They’re being kicked into the long grass. And that’s terrible and yet another aspect of Brexit which is shameful.”
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) recently revealed that more than 440 homeless people died on the streets or in temporary accommodation in the UK in the past year. “It’s disgraceful,” Lorraine says of the figure. “We’re supposed to be a civilised society, this should not be going on.
“It breaks your heart when you see the contrast between somebody walking into a fantastic hotel past someone who is sleeping rough. That shouldn’t be happening.”
So what’s the solution? Kelly says while giving money to rough sleepers might seem like the best idea, there are better options (in her opinion) – whether that’s in giving money to a charity that supports homeless people, in buying them a hot drink or simply stopping to have a chat.
“Don’t just walk past,” she says. “A lot of them are really lonely and they’ve all got their story and you can learn a lot by talking to them and just make them feel like a human being.
“What I’ll tend to do if say I’m going in to buy a coffee or something, I’ll buy them a cup of tea. And if they’ve got a wee dog, I’ll get some dog food.”
Kelly labels the homelessness situation in London as “scandalous”, especially with the vast amount of empty properties in the city – more than 20,000 homes are estimated to be empty long-term.
“It’s a basic human need isn’t it, for shelter, warmth, a job, a sense of purpose and a sense of confidence in yourself – and it’s all about human dignity as well,” she continues.
“Society would be a much better place if everybody had somewhere they could call their own, then everybody could start contributing.
“I just think it’s such a waste of potential and young people to leave them there [on the streets]. You can’t, it doesn’t make any sense on any level whatsoever,” she says, exasperated.
“Never mind just being compassionate, it’s also about getting people to be part of society, to contribute and feel wanted and loved.”
Register to be part of the first ever Soupathon and download a starter pack at: www.centrepoint.org.uk/bigbroth.