November 2020 Newsletter

A massive thank you to Crystal Palace FC supporters group ‘CPFC Fanatics’ for their big donation drive. We received over £600 in a 24 hour period and over £1,000 in the last 7 days thanks to their promotion of our text to donate service on Twitter. This is in addition to the £3,000 they previously raised for us. The donations are in part associated with a national campaign encouraging football supporters across the country to boycott the expensive pay-per-view (PPV) service and donate to a local charity instead. Here is a quote from one Palace fan: “I enjoy watching Palace with my dad, so he is going to pay to watch (it’s a choice after all). I will happily donate the same amount of money to the Foodbank – as the pricing of PPV is OTT.”

A big thank you to all Palace fans who donated. For those who need reminding, TEXT dinner 5 to 70085 to donate £5 or TEXT dinner 10 to 70085 to donate £10. The cost of this service will be £5 / £10 plus a standard rate message.

This year we want to make our Christmas parcels more special than ever and for this we need your help. We are looking for the creative among you to help us make handmade Christmas tree decorations in the theme of a star. The stars can be crocheted, knitted, sewn, or made from wood, wire, paper or any other material your imagination can conceive. All we ask is that they are safe (no spikey bits please) and of good quality (this probably isn’t a craft for the kids). Our aim is to have enough stars to place one in every Christmas parcel we deliver. If arts and crafts isn’t your thing then perhaps you could ‘sponsor a star’ to enable us to buy gifts for every adult and child we provide food for. We are anticipating delivering 500 parcels in the run up to Christmas and a donation of £5 will help us towards the total needed to provide everyone with a present. Homemade stars must be with us by Friday, 11th December at the latest but preferably by the end of November. Please email Amanda at [email protected]  before delivering to let us know they are on their way. Cash donations can be made via our text to donate service, Virgin money page or by direct donation to our Lloyds charity account (Norwood & Brixton Foodbank, Sort Code 30-92-89,  Account No. 29431060).

Listen to this insightful interview by Sarah James from St Michael’s Fellowship in Streatham with our media manager Jon Taylor. As part of Challenge London Poverty Week, St Michael’s Fellowship collated stories for their first podcast entitled Working With Parents and the episode with Jon is on the theme of ‘More Than Food’. He discusses the impact of Covid-19 on the Norwood and Brixton Foodbank, the way it now operates and how it is supporting local parents.

Download and print our amazing advent calendar using the blue button below. Instead of the traditional chocolate treat, we have placed a Foodbank item behind each window that we are in short supply of. Don’t worry if you can’t buy every item, just buy what you can and return your contributions to Foodbank by Friday, 11th December to ensure they get delivered before Christmas.

Are you on means tested benefits or of pensionable age? You could save £140 on your electricity bill for 2020/21 by applying for the warm home discount scheme! To find out more join Repowering London on Zoom on Friday, 6th November from 10-11am. Everyone is welcome. The Zoom link is https://zoom.us/j/93100653213. If you can’t make it but would like to find out more call  02036747519 or email [email protected].

We’re so grateful to all our supporters who have used the Bankuet social enterprise to order food for our Foodbank in the past. We’ve recently been made aware that it is possible to claim gift aid on these donations which would enable us to receive a very substantial and welcome financial contribution. But we need your help to access this money! If you have ordered through Banquet in the past, they will soon be in contact to inform you on how you can retrospectively gift aid your donation to us. Please take the time to fill out the form which could make all the difference to our clients this Christmas.

We wanted to say a great big thank you to everyone who has given food to us as a harvest donation. Schools, churches and individuals really stepped up to answer our call. In the picture above you can see donations from Sydenham High School which, along with other donations, helped us to fill two trucks to the point of overflowing.

Well done Dulwich College and especially Year 4 pupils and the Community Action & Charity teams who co-ordinated their recent Foodbank drive. An incredible 70 crates of food were collected on campus and were transported to our warehouse to help feed hungry children and adults in Lambeth and the surrounding area.

We often get encouraging feedback from our clients who appreciate the service we provide. Below is a recent email we received which shows what a difference your Foodbank contributions can make to someone’s life.

‘Hi there, I believe I was recently a recipient of one of your food parcels, after being referred by Thames Reach. I just wanted to thank you personally for your kindness and generosity, and to let you know how touched I was to receive the urgently needed help and support. You really did help me out of a dire situation and I cannot thank you enough for you and the work you do for myself and others.’

Please note that due to Covid-19, our distribution points are currently closed! Drop-boxes are still operating in various local shops across Lambeth. 

We have three distribution points across the Borough of Lambeth with different opening times for each. Click on the image above for more information regarding our food distribution points.In addition to the three distribution centres, we have a number of drop-boxes situated in local shops and community hubs across Lambeth.

We have a number of new initiatives to suit your donating preferences, including our text to donate service where simply by texting ‘dinner 5’  or ‘dinner 10’ to 70085 enables you to donate the corresponding amount through your phone. Please click on the image above and download our ‘ways to donate’ info sheet to see all options available to you.