‘Making a difference, one drop of soup at a time’

Solomon Smith, who co-founded the Brixton Soup Kitchen a decade ago. Pic: Masbal Cali

A decade after he helped found one of Brixton’s most prominent soup kitchens, Solomon Smith has expanded his charitable empire. He now runs soups kitchens in Nottingham and other parts of England. Having started the Brixton Soup Kitchen with Mohamed Hashi in January 2013 because homelessness is very complex “it could be sofa surfers, it could be a lot of people having trouble at home, it could be loneliness”, Smith still believes in the need to make a difference in his community. Southlondonlines (SLL) caught up with him at the headquarters of the Brixton Soup Kitchen.

Southlondonlines: How is Brixton Soup Kitchen funded?

Solomon Smith: We don’t get government funding because there is a lot of stipulation when it comes to government funding. As they would say to you, this is amount of fund is for you to only work with certain amount of people, only people in Southwark, only people in Lambeth. And for us, our doors are always open we don’t care about race, religion (or) sexuality. Our main thing is, if you are in need, our door is open. A lot of the government funders try to change that. We mainly rely on donations.

SLL: So has your organisation struggled financially?

SS: Definitely! We have families coming in with children. We get a lot of elderly coming in. For us, it’s very overwhelming, but this is why we started doing the work we’ve done. Growing up. I always saw poverty. When we’re getting people coming in, our main thing is what can we do to support them.

SLL: People must tell you their stories and the personal struggles that got them here. What is the most common story you’ve heard?

We hear so many stories of people who have had great lives and now they’re begging. That is what I always say to people: homelessness can hit you at any time; you never know when this would hit you. This is why I always say to people to be good to one another because you never know when you are going to need people.

A lot of the times we get on our high horses – with our education and our high-end jobs – (but) we don’t know what’s around the corner. The amount of people we’ve had here that never thought in a million years they would be coming here – that is the majority of the people that come here.