May 2021 Newsletter

Here’s our May newsletter and our big news this month is to welcome and introduce you to our newest staff member, Fred Scott-Poll. Fred previously worked for Look Ahead and is our new Signposting Support Officer which is a grant funded role by The Walcot Foundation. We also say a huge thank you to local artist Martin Grover who auctioned his amazing paintings of vinyl album covers, raising over £1000. Don’t forget you can sign up to receive our newsletter directly to your inbox at the beginning of every month. Go to the bottom of this page and fill in your email details. To download May’s newsletter click here.

NEWS AND UPDATES On Thursday, 22nd April, figures released by the The Trussell Trust show that food banks in our network gave out a record 2.5 million emergency food parcels to people in crisis last year which marked a 33% increase on the previous year. No one should need to use a food bank. We’re proud to join the Trussell Trust in working towards a #HungerFreeFuture. For more on this story click here. Having worked in partnership over the last year, Lambeth food banks also released combined annual figures last month, revealing a staggering 127% increase in the number of people fed. 39,425 emergency food parcels were provided in total and 15,020 of these went to children. The main cause behind this increase was low income. A more detailed article including comments from some of our Foodbank managers and clients can be found in the following online publications: South London Press (page 7), Brixton Buzz, Brixton Blog. A short audio story from Melissa as she recalls having to make a choice between paying her bills or being able to eat. You can listen to Melissa’s recording by clicking on the image above. ‘Acceptable’ – this powerful poem about change was written by Caroline about her experiences of not being able to afford the basics. It is read by volunteers and food bank staff from across the Trussell Trust Network. If you get a moment please listen to the words of the poem, share with friends and encourage people to sign up to make change happen via the #HungerFreeFuture campaign.  We are recruiting for more volunteers and need your help. Our volunteer gaps are daytime midweek only and we need volunteers who can commit to working with us until summer. Please go to our Give Help/Volunteer page and/or email [email protected] for an application form or if you have any questions. A huge thank you to local painter Martin Grover who donated 10% (£1,139.70) of his sales at his recent auction of 15 album cover paintings to our Foodbank. Take a nostalgic look here at some of the iconic album covers that helped raise us the funds. Our most urgently needed items this week. We’ve added small jars of coffee as these supplies are running very low. If you can donate, here’s where to go. Thank you. A very warm welcome to our new recruit, sign-posting support officer Fred Poll. Fred’s role has been grant funded thanks to the Walcot Foundation and we are in no doubt he will be a great asset to the team! A big thank you from the Foodbank team to all those who supported the Southwark Diocese Lent appeal and in particular the Croydon Minster School who used this period to collect generous amounts of food for us. Thank you to Give Food and Pedal Me for teaming up to deliver face masks to us in this novel way. Team work at its finest! REGULAR ITEMS Please note that due to Covid-19, some of our distribution points are currently closed. Drop-boxes are still operating in various local shops across Lambeth.  Please check our website for the latest information on how and where to donate food. We have a number of new initiatives to suit your donating preferences, including our text to donate service where simply by texting ‘dinner 5’, ‘dinner 10’ or ‘dinner XX’ (insert amount of your choice) 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.

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