Leeds homeless shelter stops serving food after sickness outbreak

St George's Crypt has been forced to stop serving meals to homeless people after an outbreak of a vomiting bug.
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Several of the charity's service users and staff fell sick over the weekend and the kitchen was closed as a precaution to prevent the illness spreading.

The food service was not available on Sunday and Monday but re-opened on Tuesday.

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The charity operates from a converted crypt at St George's Church on Great George Street and works with rough sleepers and those with addiction issues. It has beds for 40 people as well as a kitchen serving hot meals.

St George's CryptSt George's Crypt
St George's Crypt

How St George's Crypt helps addicts to change their livesA statement on the Crypt's Facebook page said:-

"If any of our service users has vomiting or diarrhoea, then we take the strictest measures to ensure that as few people as possible get infected.

"With a high number of people using our lunch service, if such a an outbreak happens, it could have devastating consequences.

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"On Sunday night we had a number of incidents of sickness and vomiting within our resident population, also a few of our staff were infected.

"We made the difficult decision to close the lunchtime service while still offering a full service to anyone needing accommodation.

"Because of these actions, the sickness has passed and we are reopening the service to everyone this lunchtime.

"Thank you for the patience of all our volunteers who were not able to come and support our service and especially to all our staff who supported our residents through this period of sickness."