In every room of an old cash and carry, life-changing work is taking place

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

It's around 9:45am on the edge of Ancoats, and a queue is starting to form outside a faded brick warehouse. Once a hive of activity as Pets at Home founder Anthony Preston's family's old cash and carry, today, it is frenetic for different reasons.

This is the home of Mustard Tree, a Manchester-based charity aiming to combat poverty and prevent homelessness - and since Covid, they’ve never been busier.

At 10am exactly, the shutters open and a stream of people filter into the building. Most head straight to the men's clothing racks or to the food bank inside the expansive shop, where they can pick up essential items for slashed prices.

But in every room across the building, life-changing work is taking place. Here, and across Mustard Tree’s three sites, the goal is not just to stop the wolf at the door by providing essentials, but to tackle the root causes of homelessness and poverty - unemployment, addiction, language barriers, long term sickness - giving people the skills and confidence they need to turn their lives around.