Running against FGM

Ann-Marie and Angela are running the British 10K run in London on 14th July 2013 to raise funds for 28 Too Many which works towards ending FGM in Africa and the UK and they'd love you to sponsor them.

They are aiming to raise £500 in the next 12 weeks so any donations are gratefully received. Both of them only took up running late last year so it will be a major achievement for them to complete the race! Cheerers on the day welcome.

To find out more about the cause, please visit www.28toomany.org or look up 28toomany on Facebook or Twitter.

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Live Below the Line

As I wrote last week, from this Monday, a number of us will be participating in Live Below the Line - a campaign intended to raise and awareness and funds for the 1.4 billion people around the world who live below the extreme poverty line. For five days we will be joining many others across the UK and beyond in spending no more than £1 a day on food and drink. As you can imagine, this is quite a feat, especially with food prices going up and up and a great way to talk to friends and colleagues about food poverty and social justice.

Doing our shop for Live Below the Line 2011

There are different ways to undertake the challenge: you can walk into a supermarket with a fiver and buy everything for your week with just that one note, or you can work out how much you're going to use of different items and calculate the cost of individual portions to reach your £5 limit. Both methods have their merits, so feel free to do either. If you choose, you can get people to sponsor you to undertake the challenge, and/or you could give the extra money you would usually have spent on your food shop to a charity like Tearfund, The Salvation Army International Development or Christian Aid who support international development.

To help with your LTBL menu planning, you might like to have a look at A Girl Called Jack website (thanks, Dawn) which has lots of budget meal suggestions. Victoria and I are going to  give her carrot, cumin and kidney bean burgers a go - let us know if you try any of the others!

Are you taking part? Let us know if you are - maybe share a photo of your shopping list or till receipt, or any budget menu ideas that others could try, and remember to tell your friends why you're lunch looks a bit different this week - you never know, they might be inspired to find out more about social justice and even come along to Justice Matters with you!

As well as all that, we will having our usual first Wednesday in the month gathering this Weds (1 May), when we will be chatting more about the practicalities of getting involved with seeking social justice. We will be at the Bohemia from 8pm - you can decide whether to take an evening off LBTL and buy a drink or just stick tap water...

This week at Justice Matters

Thanks to all who came along to our gathering at the Bohemia this week - we had a great session hearing about Ann-Marie's trip to the UN, from our guest speaker Grace about the work of the Trussell Trust foodbank network and from Beth Stone about how to get involved with the recently launched Chipping Barnet foodbank.

Research shows that one in five UK mums have skipped meals in order to have enough food to feed their children. Since 2000, the Trussell Trust has helped local churches to establish over 330 foodbanks to support and serve people in urgent need, with three new centres opening every week to meet rising demand. Importantly, foodbanks do not only offer food, but also valuable signposting to information and services that might help clients get things back under control.

We had an interesting discussion about the positive fact that so many local churches have responded to the needs of their neighbours by setting up foodbanks, but lamented that such need exists so widely and reflected on the Trussell Trust's clear intention not to allow foodbanks to become another arm of the welfare state. If you're interesting in finding out more about the local foodbank - how to help, or how to refer someone for support - you can contact them via their website.

After that Victoria talked about Live Below the Line, an anti-poverty campaign in which participants sign up to feed themselves on just £1 a day for five days to raise awareness of the many people around the world living on less than $1 a day. Members of JM took part in this a couple of years ago (you can read about our experiences here) and we're going to be taking part again this year from 29 April to 3 May. We'll post some more information and tips shortly - we hope lots of you will be up for taking part.

That's more than enough from me for now - have a great week and see you on 1st May for another exciting session...

Chipping Barnet Foodbank

Chipping Barnet foodbank opened on the 10th November last year. Situated in the Salvation Army premises in Albert Road, New Barnet, they have fed more than 136 people (including children) in the area since opening.

The foodbank is part of the Trussell Trust, an organisation that pioneered foodbanks in this country.  The Trust has provided resources to facilitate the set up and operation of the local foodbank.

Chipping Barnet foodbank has been inundated with donations of food - more than 1,500 kg so far - and has had to find additional storage space away from the Salvation Army, expanding into a garage owned by the church of Mary Immaculate and St. Peter in New Barnet. Donations have been provided by individuals, churches and schools. Two food collection have also taken place at the Whetstone branch of Waitrose.

Donated food must be non-perishable (tins or packets) and have a long ‘sell by’ date on it. The foodbank is not allowed to hand out food that is out of date (nowadays even tins have ‘sell by’ dates on them). Every item is checked when it comes into the foodbank and food that has the nearest ‘sell by’ date to the current day is put into the parcels first (ie. food that has a date of April 2013 will be given out before items that have a date of July 2013). This is to ensure the health of recipients as well as provide some stock items for them.

The foodbank is currently open from 10 am – 12 noon on Saturdays and 12 noon - 2pm on Tuesdays. When a client comes into the foodbank, they can sit down and have a cup of coffee or tea and a chat with a volunteer while their parcel is being made up. We can also provide leaflets and information about charities and organisations that may be able to give help and guidance to people in difficult circumstances.

Clients must present a voucher for a parcel that has been issued by a professional (eg: social worker, doctor, community worker) who knows them and is familiar with their family circumstances.  Volunteers at the foodbank are not trained as counsellors or advisers, able to make judgements about individual circumstances and needs. Vouchers have been issued to 50 different local agencies so far, including the Children, Young People and Family Network, the Jobcentre, Barnet Homes, as well as various churches and doctor’s surgeries. The vouchers are numbered and must be signed by the professional to be valid. A record of signatories is kept in the foodbank for referral and vouchers are checked before food parcels are made up.  This system allows the ensure that the foodbank helps people in genuine need.

Anyone who is interested in volunteering to help with the running of the foodbank can contact us through the website to obtain a volunteer application form.

Next week's gathering: Foodbanks

We have now confirmed our venue for next week's gathering - we will be meeting in the new function space at the back of the Bohemia (762-764 High Road, North Finchley). Come to the back of the pub and down the stairs to find us...

As previously trailed, Grace from the Trussell Trust will be sharing about the emergence of the Foodbank Network, and also about how to get involved with the newly established Chipping Barnet Foodbank from Karen and Teresa. Bring along a non-perishable food item to donate to get in!

We'll also be chatting about taking the Live Below the Line Challenge. Every year this gets more media coverage, so its a great opportunity to talk to others about the realities of poverty and perhaps change a few peoples' habits for the better. But don't take my word for it, here's Wallander / Avenger's star, Tom Hiddleston talking about why he's taking part in LBTL on This Morning. Nice.

With the rise of Foodbanks and the recent attention on welfare changes, we think that this will be a popular session, so do think about inviting someone along - we're always keen to welcome new members. See you at the Bohemia next Wednesday (17th April) from 7:30pm.

Don't forget to bring a friend and a tin of beans to donate!

Women in agriculture

This interesting resource from Oxfam covers producers of honey in Ethiopia, shea in Mali and vegetables in Tanzania - all very relevant to our focus on food and recent efforts to build bees hotels.

"Development actors are increasingly prioritising ‘investing in women’ to ensure food security and sustainability—as well as equity—in agricultural development. In this context, collective action is a critical but poorly understood way for women small-scale farmers to strengthen their engagement in agricultural markets. This report provides rigorous new evidence, from quantitative and qualitative research carried out in Ethiopia, Mali and Tanzania, on the economic and empowerment benefits of women's participation in collection action groups across different farming systems and markets."

Read more: http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/womens-collective-action-unlocking-the-potential-of-agricultural-markets-276159

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I Am Nasrine

In case anyone is interested, the 2013 BAFTA nominated film 'I Am Nasrine' comes to the Curzon Cinema in Soho, London this Sunday, April 14th at 2:10pm. Be a part of 'the real Argo' and don't miss out.

"I Am Nasrine is an intimate journey of self-discovery and the unfolding of a soul. The film follows the paths of Nasrine and Ali, sister and brother in a comfortable, middle-class Iranian home. When Nasrine has a run-in with the police, the punishment is more than she bargained for: their father orders them both to relocate to the UK. Arriving in Britain, their fate and their future are far from certain. As Nasrine finds the courage to accept her fate, she discovers the end of her journey is really just the beginning..."

http://iamnasrine.com/

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