A BURY-BASED organisation to help homeless people in the borough has received the support of some of the UK's biggest food retailers.

Helping Manchester and Bury Homeless, a non-profit which offers services to get to get homeless and low income families back into their own homes and into society, has been backed by retailers including M&S, Tesco, Aldi, Greggs, Asda and Morrisons.

The companies have been providing surplus food and other support over the Christmas period to assist the charity at its "busiest and toughest time" of year.

Sarah Edgar, office manager at Manchester and Bury Homeless, said: "All the surplus food has been absolutely fantastic and will keep us going for quite some time.

"They really spoiled us this Christmas, and it has been nice to see the Christmas spirit from everybody and the donations from the public.

"The more service users we get, and we are getting more all the time, it is just helping us with the influx.

"We are trying to work together to eradicate this massive problem.

Helping Manchester and Bury Homeless was founded by former corporate banker and Unsworth resident, 41-year-old Suzanne Angle.

Ms Angle decided to leave her job and help Greater Manchester's homeless after a homeless man she regularly bought food and drink for died during a harsh winter.

After several years running a street kitchen in Manchester city centre and taking to the city's streets armed with warm clothes and hot food and drink for those in need, with an army of volunteers, Ms Angle is now working to overcome homelessness and rough-sleeping in Bury.

In November the charity launched a night cafe at the Mosses Centre, open 7pm to 7am from Friday to Sunday offering vital support when other services are closed.

Ms Edgar said: "We run the cafe three nights a week and we have four nights a week at the Mosses centre and we serve more than 400 to 500 meals every week.

"It is going really well. The fact that we can sit down and talk to people on a personal level it is not just a quick meal and then people are back out.

"They have been let down by a lot of services in the past. But they can see people moving in their own properties and they want it too.

"People are coming back every week and we keep getting new referrals. People can see it is working."

"It makes me proud, because this has been Suzanne's project and her dream, and it is coming together now when she has worked so hard to get here."

The charity has already enjoyed success this winter moving two people back into their homes.

They also have a further four more centre users who will hopefully moving into properties in the coming weeks.

However the the charity is looking to consolidate its services by moving into its own building - urging corporate sponsors to come forward.

Ms Edgar said: "We need our own building, at the moment the Mosses centre is great but we are looking for a one stop shop that we can run everything from."

The charity is also appealing for donations including tea, coffee and sugar; dried food; toiletries; warm clothing, socks and underwear; sleeping bags and pop-up tents.

For more information or to donate visit the charity's Facebook page or call 07910 750466