THE founder of a city street café has stepped down after almost three years feeding the homeless.

Sharon Multani officially stood down from her role running Worcester Street Café on November 4 “due to personal reasons”.

The voluntary scheme, which sees hot food served to rough sleepers outside the old fire station in Copenhagen Street every Monday to Thursday evening will continue to operate under new leadership.

A post on the café’s Facebook page said the new managers are “Gemma, Nic and Kylie”, adding Ms Multani, 59, “wants to thank you all so much for everything you have done in supporting such a great project”.

The post also said she will “miss you and our friends lots” and that “we please ask that you respect her privacy”.

“Everything regarding the café will run as normal and four nights a week we will be out there rain, snow and sun making sure our friends are fed a nice warm meal. We thank you all for your continued support and without your help we really couldn’t do what we do.”

A post on the Facebook page from October 30, presumably by Ms Multani, asked if anyone could collect food donations from Greggs after she’d suffered a “horrid fall” while loading the car.

A later post said “I’m rather cut and bruised” and went on to thank those who had filled in for her.

In September last year Worcester haulage company M. Pinches & Sons Transport donated an old service van to the café after Ms Multani launched a fundraising campaign to avoid volunteers having to use their own cars.

Martin Pinches, a director of Blackpole Trading Estate West-based firm, saw her plea in the Worcester News before donating the van and even having a logo painted on it.

At that time, Ms Multani estimated she had around 20 volunteers who cook meals on a rota basis.

Food is also donated by Pret a Manger and Greggs in the city centre, while the Brunswick Arms and Royal Oak at Leigh Sinton have also made donations and raised funds for the project.

A post on the street café’s Facebook page said: “To run the street café, we fundraise and get lots of support from the local community.

"All funds raised or received, pay for the running of the café, this includes keeping the van on the road and buying food to feed our service users if sufficient isn’t donated.”

Ms Multani was unavailable for comment before we went to print.