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...
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