The Manchester Evening News has launched a fundraiser for The Mustard Tree – a charity helping those who need it the most
18:27, 07 Dec 2025Updated 18:27, 07 Dec 2025
The Manchester Evening News is working to raise money for Mustard Tree in the run up to Christmas(Image: M.E.N)
After a period of unemployment, Brian Duffy came across Mustard Tree. He was on Universal Credit living in south Manchester when he received a notification about an event in Didsbury.
Now, four months into a six-month trainee scheme, he told the Manchester Evening News it has given him “a reason to get out of bed in the morning”.
Mustard Tree is a Manchester-based charity which offers a desperately-needed safety net to people in our region struggling with poverty and homelessness. Across three sites, Mustard Tree offers food discount schemes, a welcoming and affordable café where people can get a much-needed break from the cold, and a community store with discounted furniture, white goods, electricals and clothing.
And on top of that, Mustard Tree works to equip people with skills to help them get jobs including clubs and classes such as learning computer skills, improving their literacy and managing bills. This year the Manchester Evening News’s Christmas Appeal aims to raise £10,000 to help the charity support some of the most vulnerable people in Greater Manchester.
Brian Duffy, 55, from Longsight, was experiencing a period of unemployment when he was informed by Universal Credit that Mustard Tree was hiring for a Freedom Project Trainee, and they were looking for someone to fill the warehouse position.
Brian Duffy is a Freedom Project Trainee at The Mustard Tree(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
Mustard Tree’s Freedom Project scheme offers people struggling with unemployment the opportunity to learn new skills, fill a gap in their CV, and a chance to get out of the house and make new connections.
“[I was] on Universal Credit at the job centre in Rusholme,” Brian said. He continued: “And you get journal messages. So I got a journal message about an event at Didsbury Job Centre, and they told me about the scheme at Mustard Tree, so I went down and met Billie, who works here, and spoke to him about what it involves.
“I started off in the warehouse, did four months in the warehouse, then in about three weeks I’m moving to retail.”
By the end of Brian’s six months working at Mustard Tree, he will be in a better position to be hired for a variety of jobs. But that isn’t all the opportunity has provided for him.
He said: “It really just gets you out of bed in the morning. It gets you out the house, it gets you meeting people. I’d never done warehouse work before, but I actually really enjoy it. It’s not something I would’ve considered doing, so it was come here and try it.”
Alex gets to see every person that comes into Mustard Tree for support(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
Mustard Tree offers a variety of training through its scheme including at its café, the restaurant, warehouse and retail. Brian said that it was incredibly helpful because it fills a gap on your CV as well as teaching you new skills. The trainees are also supported with a free lunch every day that they work, as well as £15 of credit to spend in the shop.
And Brian is just one of the many people whose lives have been altered by The Mustard Tree. Support Team Leader Alex Talbot told the Manchester Evening News that a key moment in his career was watching someone who came through the doors for support with homelessness become a key staff member at the charity.
Alex is a key front-line worker at the Manchester-based charity and gets to meet, talk to, and support every person who walks through the doors.
“A member of our team originally came here when he was homeless for support,” Alex shared. He continued: “We were busy helping people upstairs, there wasn’t enough staff members that day as we had around 60 to 70 people in. And he just started copying what we were doing, just helping other people.
“He was running his own support service under the table, and when we realised what he was doing we were like ‘that’s incredible, what an amazing man’. We got him volunteering with us straight away to give him actual training, and as soon as a job came up we told him to apply. He has been here for a year now and he is genuinely one of the best support workers I have ever seen.”