A summer break

Wednesday's cafe session and our community BBQ last night were our final gatherings before the summer break. Thanks to everyone who have come along and taken part in our sessions since January - here's a short reminder of all that we've been up to over the last seven months.

We'll see you again in September for more and better!

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...

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!

Our Spring/Summer programme is here!

The new year is upon us and with it comes an exciting new theme for Justice Matters: 

Food, glorious food. 

From the joys of urban bee keeping, to the importance of Fairtrade, meat-free Mondays and the Live Below the Line challenge, there's something for everyone to get their teeth into.

Join us every first Wednesday in the month at The Bohemia pub (N12 9QH) from 8pm and every third Wednesday at Coffee Republic in North Finchley (N12 9QR) from 7:30pm. 

Get all the latest information - sign up for email alerts (see how in the column to the right), Like us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter.

See you at a gathering soon!

Sam and Victoria, Sara, Lizzie and Elaine