Eating in emergency housing

[JurassicPark4Eva]

Friend has landed in a Travelodge this week after becoming homeless. Not arrears or anything he's done, the landlord sold the flat. No one is accepting him for a private rent as a single 30yo man on PIP and UC, so he's now in emergency housing.

Travelodge of course has zero white goods such as microwave, cooker, washing machine. It's also sited at a service station on a major road so nowhere to walk, and has no car. All that's here is the v expensive petrol station shop.

We've sorted the washing of clothes every week but he only has a tiny kettle in the room and it's a condition of the stay that he doesn't cook in the room - toasters, grills, camping stoves, fridges etc are explicitly banned for obvious safety reasons.

I'm not sure how he's going to survive this financially. The man has complex MH issues, and would normally live on frozen ready meals and pizzas. He'll likely order a takeaway on Uber Eats every night or something, but he's going to run out of money fast.

Has anyone else been through this?

Now you and I might stock up on porridge pots, longer lasting foods that don't need to be chilled, or make our way to somewhere else every day for fresh foods but this chap won't do that....

I will check - not one I'd considered - but I'm pretty sure there isn't - this is a place regularly used for emergency housing, so I suspect they have it fairly locked down to avoid issues.

I might see if they can advise me - he doesn't need a parcel at the moment, but it might give me more ideas. Thank you very much.

I had a family member in this situation and I used to visit them and their corridor always smelt of cooking as people were using George Foreman type grills to make food. You say that’s not allowed though but double check if there are any facilities as the guests used to be able to use a microwave there too.

I had the same issues as you re food. I used to get them a meal deal and lots of snacks and take them out for something to eat occasionally or pick up a McDonald’s or something on the way to see them.

After that particular hotel they were placed in a different one where the rooms were bigger and they were able to have a small fridge and microwave which really helped.

sadly, I was in the same situation with two children. luckily the children had a school meal, but we had the same conditions, so we often had to buy them sandwiches ready-made for supper; the problem was that the allowance was so small, i often went without food to feed my kids. we were not supposed to have food in the room, and keeping them fed and amused at weekends was a nightmare.
If it is possible you have sorted the washing, can anyone bring him a cooked meal sometimes?
other wise i think that healthy eating should probably go out the window.

pots of jelly and custard not needing fridge foil, topped
crisps
health bars
fruit may be apples or bananas
pop corn
muffins
crackers

If he’s at a service station on a main road have a wander round to where the truckers entrance is. Sometimes they have more facilities there which he could use? They sometimes have microwaves. Also check out if there’s a microwave somewhere in the services which is for heating baby food up.
I would suggest getting friendly with the truckers as they often have microwaves in their Lorry’s and are a friendly bunch! But it doesn’t sound like your friend is up to doing that.

I’d be tempted to get a small microwave and one of those large black storage boxes on wheels. And then simply hide the microwave in the storage box when not being used. Chuck a load of clothes over it and nobody is going to go rooting through it. He would have to be careful though. If you get him a cool box he would be good for a few days at a time

Would this work @JurassicPark4Evahttps://amzn.eu/d/0MuQ5xLit would be easy enough to hide!

Does he have parents or siblings, cousins who can help?

No, mum is dead. She had the same MH issues he does - common genetic link - and a very poor relationship with him.

Dad divorced his mum when he was a kid, emigrated to Canada and still sends guilt money for Xmas but never picks up the phone.

Elderly granny lives on the other side of England. That's all he has left. Hence why I can't turn my back completely, he needs support.

Oh wow, that's amazing, I had no idea it existed!!! I'll get him to look at it later on and see if we can make that work. Thank you!!

Can you take him shopping?

Aldi do the noodle dinner pots and you can buy ready cooked meatballs etc.

Sorry I couldn’t see if you mentioned a fridge but if not an electric cool box would be good for milk, cheese etc.

Of he gets an Asda pass he can order anytime he likes as long as he meets the minimum shop (use to be £40) so he could order every 5 days. Maybe help him set up a basic list that he gets weekly. Cereals etc for breakfast or porridge oats made with boiling water (not the pots but actual oats) and then syrup.

It won’t be easy and will take a lot of mental strength (which I appreciate may be very difficult right now if he already has MH problems) but it is doable if he can be supported to do it.

The issue will be lack of being able to access anywhere to walk, browse etc as that will very likely impact his MH further.

Yes I would just do this too. Get the smallest microwave i can find and then hide it in a lockable suitcase when I leave the room.

Also a soup maker is like a kettle. If you get one with chunky mode he could boil tins of food too.

I agree with the pp who said he needs more social care support.

Does the man have ARFID? If so, I would approach the council again asking them to place somewhere suitable where he can meet his needs around eating. If he doesn’t have such a diagnosis, would he raise it with his MH team?

We lived in an hotel for a month in between rentals. We bought this travel fridge, which comes with a normal wall plug. It's massive:

https://www.halfords.com/motoring/travel-accessories/coolboxes/halfords-40-litre-mains-and-12v-and-24v-electric-coolbox-195723.html?stockInventory=10&gl=15no8upMQ..gsMQ..&gclid=Cj0KCQjwLFBhDmARIsAItqgt7ppa7kRNtSvbKyTvLNefROTPzXOesiGC0XOSfrlPDVytGDECiGC4aAg93EALwwcB&gclsrc=aw.ds&gbraid=0AAAAADrJx6xAZsh4vk8Us3ioOqmz4oI9

We ate:

Cooked supermarket chicken, salads w dressing
We stored milk, cheese, butter in there - crackers with butter and cheese or pate almost makes a meal, although less so for us fatties
Big yoghurts
Pre-prepared fruit; although if he can buy some tupperware or just cheap ziplocks and a knife, it's cheaper to buy a whole pineapple (the ones without the heads are even more economical), and it's surprisingly filling for a breakfast. Tinned fruit is expensive these days. Pineapple is the most economical DIY in terms of what actually fills you up.

Grated red leicester, cheddar, grated red onion - mix with mayonaise to make a really substantial and filling cheese sarnie just like M&S makes.

Other hotel foods

Dips w pitta bread; taramasalata, hummous etc
Big pots of potato salad and coleslaw - could be paired up with cooked chicken, use the chicken strips like a spoon

You can eat rice pudding cold from the tin, throw in a handful of cheap sultanas and a big squeeze of honey, maybe a sprinkling of demerera sugar and you feel a bit less like you're living on the poverty line.

Boiled eggs can be bought in jars, but they're not very economical; might be cheaper to buy them individually from the chippy.

We bought light bamboo plates and plastic glasses, a travel bottle with w/up liquid, and had a towel dedicated to only balancing drying up on, on the floor, against a wall.

If you're willing to help him, then a sliced up gammon joint and also sausages can be eaten cold w coleslaw etc, although they're gross cold, but at least it's cheap protein.

Iirc Maggi branded noodles can just sit in a bowl of boiled water from the kettle.

He should also see if he can corner someone friendly amongst the hotel waiting staff and ask if the kitchen would be prepared to pop a meal in a microwave for him. Don't ask, don't get.

I'll pop back if and when I think of more.

Edit: a lot of the frozen chicken kebab type things that you get in lots of places - Farm Foods, Lidl, etc are in fact already cooked and just need to be left out to defrost - your friend needs to study the back of the packet and look for 'reheating instructions' rather than 'cooking instructions'

And baked beans can be eaten cold. I imagine on thick white bread with decent fresh butter would be tolerable.

Pickled onions, gherkins, betroot, branston, picalli etc all can be eaten cold and accompanied by cooked chicken, gammon or sausages. A tin of black olives for about £1 is some sort of effort towards healthy eating.

Tinned tomatoes can be eaten cold and would be okay with thick sliced buttered bread.