Meet our neighbours: The People’s Kitchen - Newcastle University Business School

I think the recent development on the Helix site has been great because it's bringing life to this little part of the city. When I first started seven years ago, there was nothing around - there was National Tyres and us. The area was dark and lonely in the night-time, but now, with all the big buildings around us, it's just brought a little bit of life to it. Long may it last.

Recent developments on the Helix site benefits us, but we've always been lucky that The People's Kitchen has a good reputation and people know that we're here. We’ve been here since 1985, so we tend to find that local businesses do want to support us because we're totally volunteer led. We don't pay anybody within the organisation apart from the cleaner, who is an ex-friend.

What I would like to say to the alumni, is if you do pass somebody on the street, don't ignore them. Even if it's just a smile that you give them, or just stop and have a two-minute chat, because quite often that's all our friends would like. When I'm walking in town, I see a lot of our friends, literally all they want is just somebody to acknowledge them.

That means a lot to them. Can you imagine sitting on the street and so many people just walking past, ignoring you? When I do see people, if I don't recognise them, I will stop and tell them about us. As Newcastle is such a small city, a lot of the homeless know about us because of word of mouth.