Each year, Sufra hosts a Winter Warmer Coat Drive as a part of our festive festivities. This year, our shop was open for 4 days and we ended up staying open way past our advertised times, as the queues seemed to be neverending!

Thanks to our generous community, we received hundreds of donations of coats in every shape and size. Each person in the queue got to take a coat for every person in their household. In the end, we served over 210 households and distributed over 877 coats.

A quote from one of our volunteers at the pop-up shop:

As a volunteer more accustomed to being behind the counter at Bridge Park, helping out at the Sufra Winter Warmer Coat Drive was a very different feel. The first day's queue was a bit daunting but no one seemed to mind being outside in the cold.

We served such a variety of people. Men and women, families and older folk. One elderly gentleman with a very round tum thought he would not be able to find anything wide enough. He tried telling us he was too old to look in a mirror but with a bit of encouragement and a great new XXL olive green anorak he was delighted at what he saw and did a little dance of joy.

A very pregnant woman asked if her unborn child qualified for a coat and was over the moon to find a lovely warm baby sized snow suit.

Two separate homeless guys were pleased their new warm jackets had zip up pockets to keep their most treasured possessions safe and only two people left empty handed, everyone else went away snug and warm and very happy.