Paul Golder writes for the Brentwood Gazette

We welcomed local charity Cool To Be Kind into the studio last week to talk about their current initiative, The Rucksack Project.

Lunchtime presenter Patrick Sherring hosted group founder Dan Skeates and volunteer Julia Lacey who talked about the history of the project and their current work.

The organisation formed in 2015 when Dan was compelled to do something after seeing so many rough sleepers on the streets of Chelmsford.

The group encouraged people in our community to fill a rucksack with items that would benefit a rough sleeper in the winter months and give it to the charity’s volunteers, who then were able to distribute them directly to people in need on the streets.

The first Rucksack Project led to 300 rucksacks being donated to homeless people, and this number has since grown to over 1000.

Julia spoke of her volunteer work which involves drivers collecting food donations from local stores that are placed in two community pantries.

The group are currently looking for additional volunteers to support their work. You can hear the interview again at www.phoenixfm.com and visit Cool To Be Kind’s own website at www.c2bk.co.uk.

* I’m celebrating a milestone with the Brentwood Gazette this week too – this is my 500th column since I started writing about Phoenix FM’s community work in 2012.

Thanks to our hard-working team of volunteers I’ve had no shortage of stories to talk about. Here’s to the next 500!