The Mobile Café

The Mobile Café project began in the spring of 2001, giving the homeless of Copenhagen a daily opportunity to get food, coffee and a nice chat. All thanks to a large group of volunteers.

Not everyone understands why projekt UDENFOR feels that it is important that the homeless get a free, hot meal. Given that nearly everyone in Denmark has access to food in some form or other, it might be considered reasonable to ask this question. However, often the food a homeless person is able to provide for him- or herself is often of poor nutritious quality.

Food of proper quality gives better health, better resistance to infections, and more energy both physically and mentally. At the same time, food is a wonderfully effective tool for creating and maintaining contact.

The contact that is established through the daily ritual of sharing food and conversing with each other can become a way to improve lives in a positive direction. Through the project, we have learned that by lending a hand and making someone’s life a little easier, the homeless people will often find the strength to take up the challenge and try to make improvements on their own.

The Mobile Café also provides a connection between the volunteers and our regular staff. Although an important element, the dispensing of food is not the only purpose of the project, and the mobile café has also become a means for collaboration and change. Our regular staff follow up on issues reported by the volunteers and vice versa. This collaboration gives us knowledge on each homeless person, without which we would find it difficult to provide the necessary help.

Some of the people who use the Mobile Café have psychological problems, others struggle with addiction problems and others yet are facing both problems. Getting help at the Mobile Café, does not, however, require a formal diagnosis, and we do not demand a particular kind of behaviour, or that they stop using drugs. We see the Mobile Café and the volunteers as guests, visiting the street.

Homeless people with mental illnesses find it particularly difficult to make use of offers for help. Often, they feel confused and are not able to cope. The Mobile Café project provides a sanctuary for this group, and the volunteers together with our regular staff are continuously putting a lot of work into attracting more homeless people with mental illnesses to the Mobile Café.

The food is prepared in the projekt UDENFOR kitchen. We place emphasis on making the food tasty and interesting. Typical dishes are meat patties with fried onions and potatoes, meat balls with stewed cabbage, meat stew, fried fish balls with sauce, meat loaf, and mincemeat with mashed potatoes. Most homeless people appreciate a hearty, traditional, Danish meal (potatoes and gravy), but a growing number of ethnic users have begun to ask for food without pork. In addition, the Mobile Café serves coffee/tea, cake and fruit – bananas being the most popular fruit, since many homeless people have bad teeth, and are not able to eat hard fruit.

 

LINKS
You can read more about being a volunteer in the Mobile Café here
Read project description for the Mobile Café here