Salvation Army makes SOS appeal to help feed Scarborough's homeless and vulnerable during the coronavirus pandemic

The Salvation Army has made a SOS appeal to the people of Scarborough to help them to continue feeding the town's homeless and vulnerable during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Scarborough Corps says it currently only has a week's worth of stock for its food bank, and is desperately in need of donations.

While it has cancelled all of its activities at the Alma Parade Citadel, it has vowed to keep supporting those in the community most in need.

Corps Commanding Officer Major Stephen Noble said: "It is with a heavy heart that the Salvation Army in Scarborough has been forced to cancel most of its activities, in line with

Government guidelines.

"We do realise that there is a lot of need out there and we will still be here to support those in our faith community and the wider community.

"It is our intention to sustain our provision of food for the homeless and, while we will not be running our weekly drop-in on a Thursday, we will provide hot food for people to come and take away with them."

The Salvation Army is currently relying on stock from donations made at Christmas and needs to fill its food bank shelves to ensure it can still run.

"Our major concern is that unless food comes in, we can't give food out and our existing stocks would run out within a week," said Major Noble.

"Therefore we would like to ask members of the public to be gracious and perhaps consider dropping off food at the Salvation Army on Alma Parade.”

Donations can be dropped off during the week between 10am and 11am.

Major Noble said the Salvation Army is looking at ways it can also support the vulnerable and elderly who are unable to leave the house.

“We will endeavour to provide for people in critical isolation circumstances and offer food parcels and telephone calls when they are unable to get out of their homes," he said.

“As for our services, we are also looking at ways we can use digital options instead of our face-to-face worship on Sunday mornings.”