Charitable trust status good news for Limitless Hope

Kevin and Kiri Swannell have formed a new partnership with Get Training to give those who come on board to help cook for the Soup Truck a gateway qualification. Photo / File

Boundary-breaking organisation Limitless Hope is now an official charitable trust.

Founders Kiri and Kevin Swannell received the good news last week - and hope to make more progress on plans to launch Hawke's Bay's first emergency shelter after a meeting to discuss their business plan on Thursday.

The idea was to provide a safe space for families and individuals in desperate need of a place to sleep for the night - before they ended up in the vicious cycle of sleeping rough.

While the main concern is still finding land for the project, they have made some progress with a sponsor willing to donate two portable units toward the 10 they hope to start out with.

"We are still putting the call out for land, it is such an important step," Mrs Swannell said.

The need for a shelter became clearer following "untold" meetings with Work and Income New Zealand (Winz ) in an advocacy role.

With backpackers and motels coming into a busy season, they were not quite as willing to take locals with nowhere else to go.

"We are trying to work with Winz and locals to move people into houses - the sooner the better".

Another exciting revelation was the partnership with Get Training, which sent a message out to schools asking food technology classes to help by preparing meals and donating vegetables for the Swannell's soup truck on Monday evenings.

"It is all part of our sustainability which comes from setting up programmes so that people who come on board will get a gateway qualification - that will take a lot of pressure off me physically."

Pirimai church dropped off cubed vegetables and 70 snack packs this week which gave the couple some breathing space.

The Limitless Hope website was being upgraded to detail any new developments.