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!

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!

Green shoots at Easter

Has anyone else got green shoots appearing from the tubs of soil and seeds we planted last week? So often at JM we look at issues that demand concerted engagement over the long haul to bring about meaningful change, so its refreshing to see a tangible outcome from our recent efforts to experiment with growing our own food within mere days of taking action.

It was equally encouraging to hear that our combined efforts to lobby Government to deliver on the commitment to allocate 0.7% of GDP to resource international development. Clearly, this announcement was part of a much wider and long-running campaign to make this pledge a reality, but it was nonetheless exciting to have been engaging with our local MPs on the issue one day and then to have seen it actioned the following week.

The sight of those green shoots sprouting from the dirt reminded me of a video I produced a couple of years ago to accompany a talk I gave at St Bs on the parable of the mustard seed. In the video, as in the parable, the dominant image is of weeds breaking through concrete, reclaiming ruins, bringing new life and colour to abandoned objects and forgotten places. This, says Jesus, is what the Kingdom of God is like - the transformation of our broken and corrupt systems, a restoration of right relationships, the dawn of a new hope.

This is what Christians celebrate at Easter - that through Jesus' death and resurrection, we are restored into right relationship with God, one another and the world. On that first Easter Sunday, the Kingdom of God went from an idea to a reality and it has continued to seed and spread throughout the world ever since.

When the hungry are fed, the poor cared for, prisoners comforted, the lonely befriended, the outcasts included and the stranger welcomed, that is the Kingdom of God.

When slaves are freed, labourers fairly treated, when women are valued as equal, that is the Kingdom of God.

When the thirsty are given access to safe clean water, when farmers don't have to sell their crops for less than they cost to produce, when young girls aren't subjected to mutilation, or forced to sell their bodies for sex, when companies in one part of the world don't exploit workers in another party of the world just because they can, that is the Kingdom of God.

Justice Matters is an expression of that same redemptive insurgency; our small effort to play a role in the creeping global transformation.

If you are around Finchley over the Easter weekend, why not pop into one of the Easter services taking place at St Barnabas Church and find out more about God's heart for social justice and how far He went to make a better world possible. 

Otherwise we'll see you again on the 18th April for our next gathering, at which we'll be hearing about Foodbanks with exciting guest speakers from both the Chipping Barnet Foodbank and the Trussell Trust, creator of the UK's largest Foodbank network. Plus we'll talking about taking up the Live Below the Line challenge again... 

So, lots to look forward to - have a good Easter weekend and see you soon!

Food, glorious food!

Food plays a huge role in our society. Eating together is a sign of hospitality and friendship, popular (and sometimes colourful) chefs are celebrated in our media, and programmes like Come Dine With Me and the Great British Bake Off are hugely popular.

Food is something that we love and often take for granted. We learnt this week that vast amounts of food is being wasted by consumers in the developed world. Meanwhile, we know that there are many people around the world - 870 million according to the World Food Programme - who go to bed hungry day in, day out. This inequality is truly shocking.

Over the coming few months, we will be looking at food and how it relates to justice. We will be exploring a range of topics - from hunger in the developing world to grow you own in the UK, from Fairtrade and unjust trade barriers, to Foodbanks and poverty closer to home.

Both the Old and New Testament of the Bible speak regularly about the issue of food justice, including guidelines to benefit those in need at harvest time, to strong words for those who seek to cheat the hungry out of their resources and those who embrace religion but lack a heart of compassion for those in need. We will be looking at some of these verses as we learn about the facts and seeing how faith and justice are inextricably linked.

Other charities are also focussing on the issue of food at this time, so we will be looking to get involved with Tearfund's new campaign, the Live Below the Line challenge and other opportunities to make a practical dent in this injustice.

It all begins this Wednesday at Coffee Republic from 7:30pm. We're kicking off the series with a guest speaker from Friends of the Earth and a practical activity to have a go at. As you can probably tell, we're really excited about this new theme and the gatherings we have planned, so we hope to see you at Coffee Republic or the Bohemia soon.

Oh, and to anyone fasting this week as part of the St Bs week of prayer and fasting, you might think its a little inconsiderate of us to be doing all this talk of food while you're trying to avoid it. But just consider this, as God says through the prophet Isaiah (58 v6-7):

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter — when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?"

So there you go. See you on Wednesday!