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July Newsletter

11th July 2018

 

We’re really excited to be able to give additional support to families by stocking books for children to take home and enjoy. A huge thank you to the Children’s book project for using a grant from London Catalyst to supply a mini Bookbank including 450 books for our Norwood branch. If you have children’s books you would like to donate please ensure they are in excellent condition and are suitable for children of secondary school age. Books can only be donated at our Norwood or Streatham branches.
We are short of these foods. If you could purchase any of the above mentioned items, we would be very grateful.

We’ve been following 62 year old Foodbank volunteer Juan Varquez in his bid to complete a 10k run and raise money for Foodbank. Juan only took up running in September last year which makes his finishing time of 1 hour 10 mins even more remarkable. While getting fit, he has managed to raise a total of £260! A big thank you to Juan and we hope he will be an inspiration to other runners to raise funds for Foodbank.

It’s been an entertaining World Cup so far, especially with England’s progress in the tournament, but why not add an extra layer of fun and collect food for our Foodbank at the same time. The rules are simple and won’t cause any VAR controversy: Simply cross off each activity on our World Cup Bingo sheet when it occurs and donate the corresponding food item. We hope you enjoy playing.

A massive thank you to the Herne Hill Film Festival team (represented by Chris and Karen in the purple T-shirts) for supporting us over the last month. Generous cinema goers supplied over 20 bags of food and donated almost £3,000 while attending screenings during the film festival. We’re grateful for such passionate and dedicated local support.

Arwen visited the Norwood and Brixton Foodbank for the first time last week after benefit changes left her with no money to buy food. She had recently changed from the old legacy benefit system to the new universal credit and had no option but to obtain an advanced payment to cover the delay. The effect of this meant her benefits were reduced each month while she makes repayments – something she is very upset about. “I have been forced into debt as I am now in arrears and if it wasn’t for Foodbank my daughter would have no food this evening. I am very thankful.” Arwen is just one of a huge number of Foodbank clients that have been failed by the new system. For more insight read the Trussell Trust’s startling report here.

On Monday, 18th June pupils from Granton Primary School visited our warehouse to help us sort and date food. We continue to be thankful for our links to local schools and for the donations and practical support they provide.

We have our next Summer Supermarket Collection at the Brixton Tesco on Acre Lane coming up in July, with the exact date yet to be confirmed. We’re really grateful to store manager Bryan for allowing us this opportunity. We will have 12 spaces to fill. Look out for a separate email with sign-up details coming soon.

 

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