the manna - outings throughout the year

On thursdays each week, The Manna provides outings of all kinds for our clients. The centre has a tri-annual trip to Kew Gardens as well as planned walks, tournaments, film nights and trips to art galleries and museums. On occasion, funding is awarded to allow certain clients to get some respite from living on the streets of London - see below photos from a recent funded trip to a hostel in Northumberland. Some poetry inspired by the trip can be found here.

Thursday Outings for October have been released! *Please note changes of times for some and sign up sheets for others. Come in and see us for more info.​

Here are some photos clients took when they hiked across Ullapool and Inverness in March 2018, partly funded by The Manna:

And here are some photos from a client wellbeing outing to Lincoln's Inn Fields in January 2018:

Here are some highlights from The Manna's Day Trip to Brighton in August 2017. We had 44 clients and a LOT of fish, chips and sunshine - it was a great way to escape London and the stress that many of our clients face in their day to day lives.

Here is an extract a client wrote about his evening at the Banff Film Festival, sourced by The Manna and courtesy of Union Chapel:

Trip to Banff Film Festival

A number of us who use the Manna have a passion for the great outdoors. In fact I actually
escape periodically from a difficult housing situation by going to stay in little huts in the
North of Scotland. So we were delighted when Rachel Woolf, coordinator of the Manna,
managed to obtain tickets for us to attend a showing of films from the Banff mountain
festival, a famous get-together for mountain lovers in Canada.

3 films were shown “Into twin galaxies”, “The Frozen Road” and “Stumped”.

“Into twin galaxies” was about 3 friends who kite-skied across the Greenland ice cap so that
they could kayak down a river in the ice. Like all the best adventures, it didn’t go according
to plan. Kite skiing is basically being blown along by a parachute pulling the skier behind it.
But it is difficult to control, and the woman, who was the kite-skiing expert, was blown off
the ground and dumped on her head by the wind. Not nice close to a hospital and medical
help, but this was the middle of the Greenland icecap! But incredibly, after 5 days lying in a
tent, she decided to go on. Me, I’d have been screaming to be rescued. Next along was that
when they found their river, it had frozen (moral – don’t believe everything you see on
Google Earth) – so they skied along it at the bottom of a deep fissure in the ice. Stunningly
beautiful place. Eventually they found a flowing river and there was more excitement when
they canoed over massive waterfalls, disappearing in the foam, but surviving to emerge into
the austere splendour of the Davis Straight. And the female member of the expedition? 3
cracked vertebrae! No stopping these women.

The second film, “Frozen Road”, was about a British cyclist cycling to the Arctic Ocean in
Canada. The film started in the valley of the Yukon River and I was fascinated to see he
stayed in a little hut similar to the ones I stay in in Scotland. (Must find out the location) He
then followed the Dempster Highway to the Mackenzie River. The climatic part of the film
was at the end, where he had to push his bike for 3 days down the frozen Peel River in
temperatures of 30 below and shadowed by wolves. When he was talking to the camera you
could see he was scared – he didn’t know if he would make it. 2 Inuit on Skidoos came
looking for him and you could see that they were shocked at what he had been through. I
looked afterward on a web forum for people in the Canadian Arctic, and they all sang his
praises.

The last film, “Stumped”, was about another intrepid female, a climber called Maureen Beck
who climbs precipices with only a stump for an arm – looked like a victim of Phlamidamide
–incredible sense of humour and a serious addiction to cup cakes. The crux of the film is
where after numerous attempts she manages to climb a crack that would be out of the league
of most climbers.

We all really enjoyed ourselves, and rounded it off with a cup of hot chocolate in
Macdonalds. Thanks Rachel!