Christmas for many is about sitting and watching the new Dr Who, after stuffing themselves with a roast and wondering whether it’s time to tackle the Chocolate Orange. But some are not so lucky, so we want to offer the chance for everyone to give, as well as receive.
We should, of course, be thinking about our neighbours all year. But at what is a time of gluttony as well as a family celebration (at least it is in our house), we ought to give some thought to whether any of our neighbours have problems feeding themselves and their family.
The report out this week by the Joseph Rowntree Trust (link here) makes it clear that there has been an increase in the number of people who are in poverty. In other words, they don’t have enough money to achieve what is generally considered to be a minimum acceptable standard of living. We can campaign about the unfairness of Universal Credit for the whole year, but we are not going to do much about the economy in the next few weeks. However, we can do our bit to make it a bit better for those at the receiving end of Government policies and one of those ways is to support a local food bank.
We advise giving to our local Food Banks, which offer cheap or free food for families in need. At Christmas, with the longer school holidays, Food Banks need even more than during the rest of the year.
How and what to give?
- Norwood and Brixton Food Bank
https://norwoodbrixton.foodbank.org.uk/give-help/donate-food/
This is part of the national organisation, the Trussell Trust, and they have plenty of places to leave a donation. The opening times are shown below but you can also shop online and send shopping directly to them. Online supermarket deliveries can be arranged to be delivered at any of the sessions below, including Saturdays from 10am to 1pm at St Paul’s Church, 184-188 Ferndale Rd, SW9 8AH (see link) or 9am to 11am at St Margaret’s Church, Barcombe Ave, SW2 3BH. Or even easier is to just donate money and they buy what they need.
There is a list of things needed shown on the link above – This highlights urgent items like UHT milk and cereal, and also tells you what they have plenty of (pasta and tea).
You can also pay £1.00 for emergency food items and then you can download their “reverse advent calendar”. You cross off an item a day and send them to the food bank. Click here
Donations are welcome at any Foodbank distribution centre during opening times, which are shown on the website here, with a map and links to other centres. But many local businesses also have places where you can leave stuff as part of your normal shop. We know about the following, but there may be others.
| Sainsbury’s Upper Norwood 66 Westow Street, London |
Mon to Fri 08:00 to 21:00 Sat 07:30 to 21:00 Sun 11:00-17:00 |
|
| Tesco 13 Acre Lane, Brixton, SW2 5RS | Mon-Sat 06:00-23:00 Sun 11:00-17:00 |
front of store near exits |
| Tesco Extra, 384 Streatham High Road, London, SW16 6HP | Mon 06:00-0:00 Tues-Sat 24 hours Sun 11:00-17:00 |
front of store near exits |
| Sainsbury’s , 2 Tulse Hill, Brixton, SW2 2TP | Mon-Sat 07:00-23:00 Sun 11:00-17:00 |
front of store |
| Norwood Leisure Centre | Normal opening hours | reception |
| Changes, 107A Rosendale Road, London, SE21 8EZ | Mon-Thu 09:00-18:00 Fri 09:00 – 20:00 Sat 09:00 – 17:00 |
inside hairdressers |
| Floral Hall, 370 Norwood Road, London, SE27 9AA | 08:30-18:00 Sun 08:30-17:00 |
donations can be handed in at the till point |
| Co-op, West Norwood 539 Norwood Road,West Norwood SE27 9DL |
Every day: 7am – 11pm |
2. Brixton Soup Kitchen
There’s also a foodbank at Brixton’s own Soup Kitchen. This was founded in January 2013 by Solomon Smith and Mahamed Hashi, two lifelong Brixtonian who identified the essential need for such a space for homeless people and those in need. They want to provides food and clothes for the homeless and need your help. Check out their website here
As part of their work they run a Food Bank, for which food can be donated at:
Brixton Dominoes Community Centre 297-299 Coldharbour Lane, London, SW9 8RP
You can donate money to support their wider work at their crowd-funding website here
.oOo.
Please let us know of anymore which we can add – all suggestions welcome
Merry Christmas all x
EATINBRIXTON 