On one of the coldest nights of the year, a crowd of people huddle around a trestle table in Piccadilly Gardens.
There's snow falling and the delicious smell of curries, stews and pies fills the air. Amid the freezing conditions, men and women in big winter coats clutch plates of food with grateful hands.
For many of them, this could be the only proper meal they eat all week. Every Thursday evening, volunteers at Street Treats hand out dozens of free meals to Manchester's homeless.
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For the last eight years, the service has been a lifeline to those forced to sleep rough on the city's streets. But, last month, volunteers who run the street kitchen were told they could no longer do so from Piccadilly Gardens.
Daryl Pollitt, who co-founded Street Treats, said a police officer warned her they would be 'booked' if they parked their van in the public city centre spot. The warning has left her 'angry' and 'annoyed' but she intends to stay put because of the great demand for the service.
"It's only a bit of kindness," she said. "We're not doing any harm.
"We're just bringing a bit of food out for people. The issue is they don't want us to park here but how do we do it without the vehicles? We have so much stuff.
"When the Christmas markets are there they are allowed to park up all day and bring their goods. They're getting revenue for that, they're not getting any money out of us.
"I think you'd have a riot [if we moved]," she said. "You'd have loads of complaints. Loads of people are up in arms about it."
Every Thursday from 7pm until 9pm, the group prepares and distributes homemade food, as well as giving out toiletries and clothing for homeless people and those in need. Between 15-20 volunteers help out each week, but there are around 30 volunteers in total working with Street Treats.
Due to the amount of supplies they require, volunteers say they have to park up a food van and several other vehicles nearby. However, the issue came to a head last month when Ms Pollitt says she was told they were not allowed to park on the area in front of the gardens, and that if they returned the following week they would be booked.
The council has also said that they have been clear that they think Piccadilly Gardens is an "unsuitable place" to run the operation from.
Street Treats started out when Ms Pollitt and her son began distributing sandwiches and bottles of water at homeless camps around the city centre. They later moved to the current spot in Piccadilly Gardens.
Ms Pollitt explained: "We decided to park up with a table and we did sandwiches, drinks and cakes, which is where the Street Treats came in.
"We just carried on getting bigger and bigger over the years. All the volunteers are either friends of mine or friends of friends.
"Now it's a compulsion. We've got to know people, you know their faces and they know us."
In recent years, Ms Pollitt says she has noticed an increase in the number of people using the service.
"The demographics have changed since Covid and the heating problems now," she explained. "People are asking for blankets and more clothes because they need to keep warm.
"They are scared of putting the heating on. It's either heating, food or neither."
Ex-doorman Martin Key has been using Street Treats every Thursday for the last three months.
"It's very helpful," said the 50-year-old, who has been staying at a hostel in Cheetham Hill. "It's excellent for people who are homeless."
Another man tells me he has 'jumped' the tram from Rochdale, where he has been sleeping rough, to make it here this evening.
"I've been quite a few times," he said. "I come down here because you get more choice and information to help you.
"Places like this are extremely important to me. These people give us sleeping bags and blankets, which is good."
He described how he would seek out 'some sort of shelter in a shop doorway, underneath arches or a bridge' in this year's bitter weather.
Tucking into an apple crumble with custard, Mark Jones is another regular at the street kitchen.
"This is the only time a lot of us eat," the 60-year-old said. "They can't do enough for you, it's amazing."
Street Treats is a purely voluntary organisation so relies solely on donations to help carry out its work. It's an impressive operation, with volunteers in high-vis jackets dishing out a range of appetising meals and hot drinks over the two-hour period.
As well as bacon hotpot and cheesy pasta, there are 40 vegetarian curries, provided by members of the charity Sewa Day.
One volunteer, University of Manchester graduate Aimee Sullivan, has brought a vegetarian sausage stew which she cooked herself.
"I've been in Manchester for about five years and I've definitely seen the homeless issue become worse," she explained.
"More people are sleeping rough, which is terrible, because the winters are pretty brutal. It's always been in the back of my mind that I wanted to do something to get involved.
"I came down and everyone was really welcoming. You just start chatting to the service users, which I think is the best part because you get to connect with the community."
A Manchester City Council spokesperson said: "Piccadilly Gardens is a busy public space and thoroughfare and we are not in a position to make exceptions to parking rules, however well-intentioned those wanting us to do so are.
"We encourage all street kitchens to link in with homelessness services which can provide wider and long-term support for the underlying issues which the people accessing their food are facing, such as help with any health, addiction or debt issues. We all want the same thing - to help people out of the situations which mean they need to access street kitchens in the first place.
"We have been consistently clear that indoor settings provide a quieter and more sheltered environment for such support - and that Piccadilly Gardens is completely unsuitable as a location. We would be happy to work with StreetTreats to help them better link into wider services and find suitable alternative arrangements, including for parking."
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