Charity sleep out for Torbay Minister
03 November 2026
The Revd Andy Chislett-McDonald, a Methodist minister in the Torbay Circuit, is undertaking a sponsored 'sleep out' in a tent for the month of November.
According to the Trussell Trust, some nine million people will use a food bank this winter in the UK. The Revd Andy has set up a donations page, with the money raised going to local Torbay charities which work with homeless and marginalised people. Two such charities, The Paignton Community Larder and Brixham Food Bank, support many folk who live in extreme poverty. The Paignton Larder can be found at Southfield Christian Centre, which is itself housed within a local Methodist church.
The Brixham Food Bank is supported by many people locally and is one of those supported regularly by members the town's Fore Street Methodist Church.
The Revd Andy sees his sponsored sleep out as one way to draw attention to the issues of homelessness and poverty. The Revd Andy commented, "Sleeping in a tent for one month in my garden is not 'homelessness’, of course. However, it may cause others to give pause and consider that many will be neither safe at home nor comfortable in their beds this winter."
"The level of rough sleeping, coupled with real poverty, across the country is heartbreaking and it is simply not acceptable that so many people have nowhere to call home or will go hungry. I have been deeply moved both by the plight of so many, and that the new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, has made this a priority.
“It’s good to see real money and real urgency behind this at last. Money alone won't solve the problem, but it will help.”