As part of its ongoing commitment to the Harrogate Homeless project, Rixonway Kitchens is helping rough sleepers in the Yorkshire town stay warm this winter.

The social housing kitchen manufacturer has donated 20 vacuum flasks to the Harrogate Homeless Project, in response to the number of individuals that are known to be sleeping rough in the town and are unable to access the facilities offered by the project.

The mercury dipped below freezing most nights last year in one of the coldest winters in 100 years and with temperatures dropping again, rough sleepers are facing another miserable winter.

To ensure each of the rough sleepers in Harrogate has at least one meal per day the Harrogate Homeless Project is offering nightly food parcels including a sandwich, chocolate biscuit and some fruit with a Rixonway flask of hot water with tea bag or coffee.

Rixonway Kitchens has made the Harrogate Homeless Project its charity of the year. Operations Director Nick Greenall said: “With the ongoing recession, social housing waiting lists are being stretched to the limit and people are facing repossession and, in extreme cases, homelessness. Rixonway is serious about combating homelessness and earlier in the year we donated a large family kitchen to the Harrogate Homeless Project.”

Rixonway believes the kitchen is the heart of the home and providing a comfortable place for residents to meet and interact is important. To raise awareness of the project and demonstrate healthy eating, Rixonway enlisted the help of celebrity chef Rosemary Shrager to cook a meal with some of the residents in the donated kitchen.

Liz Hancock, Project Manager at the Harrogate Homeless Project, said: “The donation of the flasks by Rixonway Kitchens has been a real help to us. We are now able to offer nightly food parcels to verified rough sleepers in Harrogate through the winter. Food is an essential element for keeping warm and our parcel may be the only meal these people eat each day.”