Friday November 28th 2025
Grassy Riggs staff and members alongside Lois White and Sean Cairns from the Edinburgh Support Hub, collecting the care bags on Wednesday (26 November)
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
An over 65 drop-in service in Dalkeith have put their community efforts towards helping Edinburgh’s homeless through creating care packages for the winter months.
Putting together 50 care bags, both male and female, after raising £300, Grassy Riggs at the Woodburn Community Hub chose Edinburgh-based homeless prevention project, Street Work as their recent charity of choice to finish off a year of charitable donations.
Grassy Riggs is a community service for over 65’s, supported by Midlothian Community Action which provides a welcoming environment and activities every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Alongside activities and socialising, members of Grassy Riggs take part in various projects that benefit their community and charities in Midlothian and around Edinburgh with charitable efforts being a shared passion amongst both members and staff.
Recently being involved with Saltergate’s School in September, where they made pom-poms and knitted animals, for their winter project the members put together care bags for Edinburgh’s homeless that consisted of knitted scarfes and gloves, toiletries, razors, dog food and much more.
Grassy Rigg’s manager, Yvonne Hutchison, explained:
“We have been involved with Simpson’s Premature Babies, we have also done stuff for Ukraine and Saltersgate School. So we decided we had one more project to squeeze in before the end of the year and through all our members talking, we decided on a charity to deal with homeless people.”
After being visited by a support worker from Edinburgh Support Hub, Sean Cairns, the members of Grassy Riggs and Yvonne chose the charity with Sean describing Grassy Riggs’ enthusiasm as ‘really moving’.
Yvonne added: “We have really felt it’s been a great worthwhile and especially with what Sean has relayed to us about the project, so we were very happy to do the project.”
Edinburgh Support Hub is part of Streetwork at Simon Community Scotland, providing a range of sessions to people facing homelessness including access to support to help resolve housing issues and benefit support. Open seven days a week, 365 days a year, they provide a wide range of support from their hub at The Cowgate Centre.
Service Lead at the Edinburgh Support Hub, Lois White, explained:
“We support anyone experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness. So people can come along to the hub and get support with their housing, with benefits, welfare, advice on banking, employability and loads of other things. We are a specialist in homelessness service.
Collecting the 50 bags on Wednesday from Grassy Riggs, Lois explained that they were ‘very grateful’ for the donations. She told the Midlothian View:
“People have knitted hats and scarfs for warmth and also, really importantly, we’ve got donations of dog food which is really vital for people who have animals and the animals can be somebody’s complete support. They are best friends for people.
“Things are just going brilliantly, it is very critical support for people out there at Christmas time. It can be a very difficult time for people this time of year.
“Any additional support at this time is just brilliant and we will be able to tell the people we support about the donations from Grassy Riggs.”
Grassy Riggs’ members raised around £300 to go towards the care packages, alongside bringing in items such as toiletries and dog food.
Grassy Riggs members putting together the 50 care packages
Working with a handful of charities throughout the year, Grassy Riggs isn’t only a community hub for socialising but a beneficial asset to communities. Through their many projects, the members have been able to provide support to a wide range of charities both locally and overseas such as their project where they knitted clothing and stuffed toys for children in the Ukriane war.
Describing the donations as ‘critical support’, Lois explained that all the donations were to be distributed in Edinburgh that evening:
“We will start distributing this afternoon. We have a street team that goes out every day and they do a minimum of three street outreaches in the Edinburgh City Centre and wider areas. So we will be able to provide the bags to people that are maybe begging or sleeping directly on the street.”
With this recent project being the last of the year, Yvonne and Grassy Riggs’ members are planning many more charitable activities in the new year, aiming to continue their support.
For more information on the Edinburgh Support Hub click here and for more information on the Grassy Riggs visit their Facebook page here.
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