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Look up child

Self-Reliant Groups facilitator Laura Walton focuses on the importance of mindfulness in the last few weeks of lockdown

Mindfulness is all about appreciating the moment and doing what it takes to stay in the moment. We learn to hold back our thoughts and train them to sit and wait while our minds settle and are still. No more thinking of all the things we need to do by this evening. Taking a break from those anxious what ifs about tomorrow or next week, those worries about our children and their children, relatives, neighbours, situations which we just can’t fix. It is about stopping and looking and listening, even smelling, tasting and touching.
 
Whilst walking in the park this week with a friend, I caused her to stop and instructed her to look and stop talking. She has been shielding and working from home very reluctantly. Instead of being swamped by children with their noise and clamouring for attention, she has gazed through her window, sat at a desk,in front of her computer and often in silence for most of the last year. Every week we would walk and she would talk, downloading the week indoors as we passed impromptu illegal gatherings of drummers, football matches with supposedly no spectators, the guy cutting hair under a tree over near the closed tennis courts. When I realised she was going to talk her way straight past a huge bank of early daffodils and late snowdrops I had to redirect her energy and attention to something beautiful, wild, resilient and resistent to the drammatic changes that we have all had to face this last year.She continued breathing but stopped still.
 
Despite the upheavals and U turns in our lives, all those sleeping bulbs needed was time at a certain temperature to activate growth and produce a fine display to capture and hold the frenetic activity of my friend’s mind mid download. And she was still and quiet and smiling.
 
How much more beautiful do the blossom trees look this year? Can we take time in these last few weeks before Boris sets us free again to walk and stop and look. Can we look up? Instead of leaving our footprints on the white blossom petals spilt on the pavement, let’s lift our eyes to those gloriously decorated branches. Our worlds have become so small over the last few months and our horizons merely as far as the nearest loaf of bread and bottle of milk. It’s definitely time to look up and be reminded of the vastness of the sky, the knowledge of who is in control and the opportunities that still lie out there for us

Church Action on Poverty Sunday: St Cuthbert’s Church Event

SPARK newsletter winter 2022-23

Kenny Fields revisited: new hope, amid the tough times

The Pilgrimage on the Margins

Dignity for All: come together to end UK poverty

Dignity, Agency, Power and human worth

“We can make a change. That’s why we’re here.”

A toddler in a pushchair holds a box of rice, at a Your Local Pantry

How YOUR church can build community & save people £21 a week

Speaking Truth to Power: A Reflection on the Dignity for All Conference 

The Final Push

Self-Reliant Group facilitator, Laura Walton, prepares for the final stretch of lockdown

As the runners round that final bend, there is always an expectation that one or more of the lean mean machines flashing lycra and sticky plasters strapping their bodies together, will find the throttle. They will move away from the pack with 100 metres to go, muscles straining and eyes fixed like steel on the finish. The others, faces grimacing with desperation and nothing in the tank to respond with, watch as they get left behind. They have nothing more to give. Lying on the track, chests heaving, arms thrown over their faces, they know they gave it their all, but had nothing in reserve.
 
So with two weeks to go until we can meet outside as two households or 6 individuals, are we ready for our final straight? Have we abandoned that race altogether? Or are we dragging our bodies by sheer will power? Did that will power leave us months ago and now we mooch around in the changing room, warm, comfortable and safe?
 
Whàt effect has 3 lockdowns and numerous tight restrictions here in the North West had on us? We’ve almost certainly been contemplating what we will do and where we will go come the end of this month and then later on. The future potentially is bright, depending on Boris’s criterion being met. We could have a haircut, browse the charity shops and meet someone for a sit down coffee…..all in the same day. Or we could receive our shopping delivery, spend an hour on the phone, sort the plastic pots, paint a wall and collapse onto our beds with the cat.
 
For some of us that finishing line just gets nearer and nearer as we think about the sheer joy of lying on the track, chests heaving, no more running. For others, that finishing line is a mirage, a suggestion but nothing definite, nothing tangible. We all started on the same track, but sometime soon some will leave to celebrate, to rest, to tell the story whilst others will still be moving towards that finish line, the one that never seems to get any nearer.
 
So this is where, just as much as before, if not more so, we need to be understanding and encouraging and think less of celebrating our own freedom and more of helping those we know, finish and get off that track.We need to have something in the tank to have a shoulder to lend or re-run that last lap beside someone else. Depending on the encouragement we get, we could all be celebrating together, finishing that race.
 
So are we ready for the final push? Can we get someone else we know over that finish line when all they want to do is stay in the changing room?
One of my favourite bible verses is not about persevering and running the race, although that is a good one. It’s about relying on God when our own resources are depleted and having our strength renewed. Then instead of being able just to drag our bodies over the line and finish the race, we can soar on wings and never grow tired again.
 
This verse is for us all, our families, our friends and especially for those communities all over the world who are still very much in the grip of the pandemic. Let’s put our hope in God.
 
But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not grow faint.
Isaiah 40:31


Find out more about Self-Reliant Groups: http://www.church-poverty.org.uk/srg 

Church Action on Poverty Sunday: St Cuthbert’s Church Event

SPARK newsletter winter 2022-23

Kenny Fields revisited: new hope, amid the tough times

The Pilgrimage on the Margins

Dignity for All: come together to end UK poverty

Dignity, Agency, Power and human worth

“We can make a change. That’s why we’re here.”

A toddler in a pushchair holds a box of rice, at a Your Local Pantry

How YOUR church can build community & save people £21 a week

Speaking Truth to Power: A Reflection on the Dignity for All Conference 

Sheffield Church Action on Poverty Update, March 2021

My Mask – a poem from ‘Same Boat?’

100 Days – a poem from ‘Same Boat?’

Church Action on Poverty North East annual report 2020

International Women’s Day – Sheroes

Self-Reliant Group Facilitator, Laura Walton, gives thanks for all the women who inspire and support us

We were blessed this week in Brews on Thursday as people shared who were the women in their lives who had inspired them. Women who served the poor in Calcutta and challenged authorities to do the same or who made a stand by sitting in a seat in a bus or who used poetry to talk about injustices women had endured. It was touching how many Mums and Grandmas also made it into the top spot. One shared how inspired she was by her 3 year old granddaughter. Loving, doting grandmothers shared their joy in their grandchildren, sharing their wisdom of lives lived despite set backs and disadvantage.

But not everyone has positive role models in the women in their family and so it’s important to hear about these stories of people we don’t know and see their profiles, read their biographies and watch their stories unfold. Maybe that’s when our own stories become much more powerful when we began them in a void, empty of encouraging and empowering words and actions loaded with love. Sometimes just growing up is tough and even more so these days with the huge pressures of social media. We have learnt that our children do not need to wait until they have grown up to make a mark on the world, they can start now. Whether it’s selling lemonade on the street to support Syrian refugees or having conversations with Donald Trump about the massive devastation already wreaked on the world through carbon emissions. We thank God that our children and teens are noticing what is going on in the world today, perhaps in a way that we didn’t. Not only noticing but recognizing that their own actions can collectively make a huge difference in the world and certainly make changes in their families. At some point we must have encouraged them ( alongside others) to see the bigger picture and given them the courage and confidence to do something for others.
And we can keep on doing that. Encouraging them, affirming them and noticing what they try and do.We can help them through their growing up challenge in this crazy world, to be courageous and confident and bring change. However big or small.

On International Women’s day we can applaud women who have challenged inequality and injustice. We can cheer those who have trailblazed and set their sights on being in positions which affect the greatest changes in nations. We can thumbs up those women who speak out and make themselves unpopular and those who risk their lives protesting in a crowd. And we can contemplate and silently praise those millions of women who struggled to keep their under 5s from dying from disease, or to keep their kids in shoes or enough food on the table to see you them through the day. We nod in agreement to those women who walked miles every day for water to bathe their kids and those who held down 3 jobs so that they could pay the rent. Then there are those big sisters who brushed their siblings’ hair and fetched their mum’s medication. We see you all.

You are our sheroes. We join our women’s voices together to call you out and say thank you for being our quiet inspiration of resilience and persistence. For never giving up when all seemed against you ever being able to put your feet up, we thank you. For putting people first and serving them until the last star had disappeared in the dawn light and it was time to start again. We see you. Thank you.

In the Bible the prophet Micah describes you and his words can help us all live lives our grandmas would be proud of.

 “And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
Micah 6:8

Find out more about Self-Reliant Groups: http://www.church-poverty.org.uk/srg

Church Action on Poverty Sunday: St Cuthbert’s Church Event

SPARK newsletter winter 2022-23

Kenny Fields revisited: new hope, amid the tough times

The Pilgrimage on the Margins

Dignity for All: come together to end UK poverty

Dignity, Agency, Power and human worth

“We can make a change. That’s why we’re here.”

A toddler in a pushchair holds a box of rice, at a Your Local Pantry

How YOUR church can build community & save people £21 a week

Speaking Truth to Power: A Reflection on the Dignity for All Conference 

How do you build dignity & power with people new to the UK?

Our latest 2021 story takes us to Migrant Support in Manchester.


How do we protect and rebuild dignity and power, with people who feel powerless and small?

How do we nurture personal agency among people who, right now, need help?

Groups such as Migrant Support actively respond to those questions day in day out, as they work not merely to walk alongside people marginalised by society, but to end that marginalisation.

Migrant Support is the March feature in the 2021 Dignity, Agency, Power calendar. The organisation, based in Manchester, is a lifeline and first port of call for many, providing practical support and social encouragement.

People arriving in the UK are often denied access to employment or support, but if our national systems don’t always reflect the compassion of our society, groups such as Migrant Support do.

Sally from Migrant Support in decorative dress
Sally Hilton, Migrant Support volunteer and the star of the March page of the Dignity, Agency, Power calendar. Photo by Madeleine Penfold.

Starting a second life

Sally Hilton, the Migrant Support volunteer pictured on this month’s calendar, says Migrant Support helped her immensely. In a video for the organisation, she said: “The first time when I came here I was very scared about my life, so when I came into Migrant Support I told them my problems. I didn’t understand English so Sandra taught me I needed to learn English. She said ‘You have a second life in this country, so don’t be scared – I’ll help you for everything’.”

We asked co-founder Sandra Rice: what do the values of dignity, agency and power mean to your work?

Volunteers with art at Migrant Support
Sandra Rice, centre, with members of Migrant Support. Photo by Madeleine Penfold.

Sandra on dignity: being part of something

“For Migrant Support, dignity has a very strong meaning. People who come to Migrant Support feel they have no value or they have not been heard. Things that are a worry to them seem not to matter to the whole society. They feel they are tiny in size when they come to us.

“At Migrant Support we encourage people to come together, to feel that this is a family for them. We create a safe place where friendly staff help them to move forward a little bit closer to employment, to formal education as well.

“Getting involved with projects that actually help you to feel a bit better might sound very easy or simple, but to feel better about themselves is a big thing on the road to getting that dignity back, to a feeling of fulfilment or feeling of identity, and being part of something.

“That’s a process that doesn’t come in one meeting or by meeting only one person or solving a problem. It’s a long journey and having people around them or in a group during this journey means a lot, because you not only gain the dignity of one person, but the whole group gains.”

Volunteers in the Migrant Support garden, showing some of their art
Migrant Support members, with their works of art. Photo by Madeleine Penfold.

Sandra on agency: reducing dependency

“One of the key projects we do is the befriending, and peer support. People who come to Migrant Support are mainly looking for very specific needs or problems they want to solve, like calling the doctor or struggling for housing, or maybe they’ve been fired or they haven’t been paid.

“Once the main problem is solved, the next thing is to reduce levels of dependency. They feel that because they can’t do things for themselves they need somebody else and in most cases that is because of the language, or because they do not know how to do things or are scared to have a phone call with somebody.

“We have some students who speak English but when you give them the phone to speak with somebody, they just freeze; they can’t move forward.

“They say it’s a matter of being able to rely on their own skills and feel confident, and therefore they increase their levels of English and communication skills. By being able to know how to do things, practical stuff, then they become themselves – they don’t need to ask anybody else; they feel confident enough themselves to call the city council to solve a problem, or call the school and solve a problem.

“We know this is happening when with their list of asks and they’re not calling us anymore, because they are getting more confident.”

Volunteers discuss a project at Migrant Support
Migrant Support members in Manchester. Photo by Madeleine Penfold, before the most recent lockdown.

Sandra on power: building stronger, louder voices

“It’s slow steps. First, people have to feel the power to make change for themselves in a very small scale. Then it’s obviously being part of a community or volunteering or feeling they’re powerful, then it’s having their own community.

“An idea of Migrant Support is to help people be aware that with any decisions that could be taken in the community, they have the power actually to raise their voice and the power to join other groups – not only or always with Migrant Support; they could join their own communities. If there’s an issue that matters to them, they could be able to talk about it.

“Again, we go back to confidence… if they feel able to talk about issues that matter to them and they have the power to do it, they will. For instance, Self-Reliant Groups help them save money and then they think they could cook, or sell the products and get a little more income for themselves. The idea is that small changes can make a big change. That could be individually but also collectively, when voices are heard stronger and louder.”

An open door and strong relationships

Migrant Support helps people in many ways. Beyond the language, it helps people address past traumas, works with children who have arrived in the country, and helps people rediscover themselves, resurrecting hobbies, for example.

The pandemic has been a lonely and difficult time for many, but the language barrier can make it even harder for people new to the UK, when it comes to introducing oneself to neighbours or getting involved in neighbourhoods. What’s more, many of the people Migrant Support helps were working in zero-hours contracts and in hospitality work, so felt the economic impact especially severely.

Samira Chaudry is lead teacher at Migrant.Support, and she too was interviewed for the charity’s recent video.

She said:There’s something very special about Migrant Support. The door is open for everyone regardless of their background and we accept people exactly for who they are.

“As a migrant myself who came here without the language and was able to go through the British education system and acquire the qualifications I needed to become a teacher, I so want to give something back. The gift that I can give to the migrants and asylum seekers is the gift of education.

“At Migrant Support, what we do is we value every single learner as an individual. We care about their past, their present, as well as their future. We build strong lasting relationships. The first most important thing is to build that friendship and trust, so they know we accept them for who they are, whatever their difficulties may be.

“We support them in terms of offering guidance and advice; we obviously direct them to services like housing and welfare, and we have someone who can offer legal support and we offer them friendship so they can relax.

“It’s so fantastic to see them having come with nothing and then, after a few weeks, able to say who they are, where they came from and learning the very basics of what they need. I’ve not met a learner yet who hasn’t wanted to succeed and get somewhere and we are they people that are actually giving them that avenue so they can make a success and integrate with the community.”

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Gathering on the Margins, 19 May: Building back better?

New wine, new wineskins part 2: What does our faith tell us?

Reflecting together, 14 May: Power and powerlessness

New wine, new wineskins part 1: Journeying into a new world

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Gathering on the Margins – 12 May

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Gathering on the Margins – 5 May

Church on the Margins: video reflections

Yellow sticker – a poem

Gathering on the Margins – 28th April

“We can make a change. That’s why we’re here.”

A toddler in a pushchair holds a box of rice, at a Your Local Pantry

How YOUR church can build community & save people £21 a week

Speaking Truth to Power: A Reflection on the Dignity for All Conference 

7 ways a Your Local Pantry could help YOUR community in 2024

The Your Local Pantry network is growing rapidly.

There are now more than 100 Pantries, across all four nations of the UK from Portadown to Portsmouth, Edinburgh to Ebbw Vale. 

Food is integral to all Pantries, but we have learnt over the years that Pantries are about so much more than that. They bring huge positive changes to people and neighbourhoods. 

Here is a quick round up of seven ways Your Local Pantry shops make a meaningful difference. 

A shopper holding a basket beside a volunteer, in front of full shelves at Hope Pantry in Merthyr Tydfil.

1. Your Local Pantry strengthens communities

One member in Birmingham told us: “It’s community spirit all the way, it brings the community together and it makes people feel part of something.”

And a volunteer said: “I have made new friends, learned new skills and my confidence has increased. I have gained valuable work experience. I really enjoy being a volunteer.”

74% of Pantry members say they now feel more connected to their community.
Two Pantry members with their shopping at Peabody Pantry in Chingford

2. Your Local Pantry membership leads to friendship

Pantry membership leads to improved physical and mental wellbeing. Access to new friends, community, good food and new opportunities all contribute to this.

Barbara, a Pantry member in Chingford, told us: “I have made a lot of friends here. I am now a member of the wellbeing cafe and social club.”

Another member said: “I was very lonely and going to the Pantry helped me make friends who support my mental health as we talk outside the Pantry.”

Ellie, a volunteer, said: “Friendships are one of the biggest benefits that people get from the Pantry.”

66% of Pantry members say they have made new friends.
A volunteer and a customer at the Peckham Your Local Pantry

3. Your Local Pantry improves health and wellbeing

Many Pantry members report feeling better after joining a Pantry – physically and/or mentally. 

Pantries provide a wide range of foods, including fresh produce, making it easier for people to maintain the diet they want to, and the community and dignity of Pantries are cherished by members.

Don, a Pantry member in Leith, told us: “The free vegetables and fruit is great. I’m on a limited income so I was buying processed food as it’s cheaper, but it’s not as good for you.”

68% say Pantry membership has improved their physical health, and 83% say it is good for their mental health.

4. Your Local Pantry improves household finances

On average, Pantry members save £21 on groceries each time they visit. That means members who attend weekly can save more than £1,000 a year on shopping bills. 

One member told us: Being a carer limits my finances, this allows me to stretch further with
two grown-up children at home.”

Another said: “I now have peace about my finances, and especially about providing meals for my family. If I start to feel concerned again I just think – Wednesday is coming – don’t panic! I no longer feel shame about my financial situation, I feel proud of how it has changed – I have my dignity back.”

97% of members say Pantry membership has improved their household's financial situation.

5. Your Local Pantry shops prevent food waste

The sheer vastness of national and global food supply chains mean there’s always a risk of some food going to waste.

Pantries are an efficient and ethical redistribution route for surpluses, via national charity Fareshare or through direct relationships between individual Pantries and businesses local to them.

One member told us: “I hate food waste. This along with affordability were my two main reasons for joining. What I got in return, that was unexpected, was community and friendships.”

98% of Pantry members say tackling food waste is important to them.
InterACT Pantry in Leeds: a green shipping container, with three people outside

6. Your Local Pantries nurture dignity and agency

Charities and community projects don’t always manage to maintain people’s dignity when it comes to food access. Pantries are different, as members testify.

Natalie in Liverpool told us: “Some people feel ashamed going to food banks, you feel like you are getting labelled. In the Pantry you are actually paying for stuff. It makes me feel, I have paid for me shop.”

Another member in Birmingham said: “I feel happy and don’t feel ashamed going in here, or feel like I’m being judged. Everyone is treated the same.”

A member in Leith said: “At the Pantry, you have choice, which is important. You can choose what you want.”

7. Pantries are a route to so much more

Food is often what brings people to Pantries. But once there, members find so much more.

Every single Pantry in the network offers some form of additional support or connection. 

Sometimes that is helpful introductions to other services.

Sometimes it means bringing other services and opportunities into the Pantry. 

Sometimes it means bringing members together to start making change happen themselves – such as in Peckham, Epsom and Portsmouth, where there are member steering groups, and where members are looking to take part in Speaking Truth To Power projects, opening the doors to many new opportunities.

 

100% of Pantries connect to wider services or opportunities

Read more about the full impact of Pantries in our So Much More report...

In sum? Pantries are bringing huge benefits to individuals, families, neighbourhoods and society as a whole.

If you’d like to know more, or would like to discuss opening a pantry, visit yourlocalpantry.co.uk

Church Action on Poverty North East annual report 2020

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Sheffield Poverty Update, September 2020

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Let’s walk upon the water

A walk in the park

Look after each other

Are you a sun worshipper of follower?

We’re all going on a summer holiday

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Love and unity in a UK food desert

Sheffield Poverty Update August 2020

A Fair and Just Future for Cornwall

How one estate pulled together and how covid could change it forever

2021 stories: how friends are striking a chord for justice and unity

The second of our 2021 calendar stories takes us to South Yorkshire

Music brings people together and captures people’s attention – and it can be a force for change.

In Yorkshire, for the past two years, one community’s shared love of music and a shared desire to learn has led to new relationships, and new-found solidarity and belief.

Through the power of music, participants are reasserting their dignity and agency, and building new friendships along the way.

The Food Glorious Food Guitar Circle in Sheffield. Photo by Madeleine Penfold.

Food Glorious Food

If you have the Dignity, Agency, Power calendar, you will recognise the above photo, showing a group of guitarists in Gleadless Valley in Sheffield.

Yo Tozer-Loft set up the Food Glorious Food choir in the neighbourhood in 2015, and the group gained national attention singing at Sheffield Cathedral to highlight the injustices of food poverty and when it was used as research for the National Theatre Play, Faith, Hope and Charity. In January 2020, just before the pandemic, Yo and some of the group set up a guitar circle, to build on that success.

“We put a call out to see if people had spare guitars sitting around not used, and it was lovely to get them coming in. A local musician, Pod Pearson from Rich Tone, restrung all the guitars in his own time for free, which was very generous, and whenever anyone broke a string, they helped again. The other people who were so supportive was a well-known cellist called Liz Hawks, who supports community music and got tuners for everyone, and Stuart, our teacher, who waived his fee5

Post-pandemic plans

“We started at the start of 2020 and had nine sessions until everything stopped in March. We had planned a showcase performance and did not get to do that, which was such a disappointment. We had all been building up to perform, and it would have been a really lovely moment.

“People were so committed. I have worked before with nervous people but so often people rise to the moment, and the guitarists were willing to put themselves up there as soloists.

“Gleadless Valley Methodists supported us, but so did the Gleadless Valley Library, who hosted a couple of sessions. Reach South Sheffield and St Mary’s Bramall Lane also supported us.

“Once lockdown ends, we are really hoping to regroup as soon as we can.

The joy of learning together

“We got so much from the project. Learning is so magical. Learning brings joy and lets people feel like the humans they are meant to be. The guitar circle combined learning, music and discovering yourself, and people discovering themselves through music is wonderful to see. Learning, music and community are such a combination, and having music to enable connections and friendships really does work.

“We kept going once the pandemic hit. We had a WhatsApp group to stay in touch, so had group calls every week and that was a good continuation for people, giving and getting human support.”

Church Action on Poverty Sunday: St Cuthbert’s Church Event

SPARK newsletter winter 2022-23

Kenny Fields revisited: new hope, amid the tough times

The Pilgrimage on the Margins

Dignity for All: come together to end UK poverty

Dignity, Agency, Power and human worth

“We can make a change. That’s why we’re here.”

A toddler in a pushchair holds a box of rice, at a Your Local Pantry

How YOUR church can build community & save people £21 a week

Speaking Truth to Power: A Reflection on the Dignity for All Conference 

Easter

Self-Reliant Group facilitator, Laura Walton, shares the joy of Easter

All around us there is acute pain and suffering. Collectively around the world there has never been a worse time than this in our histories and a better time to hear the good news that is Easter Sunday. Today at sunrise we join with millions of people, to celebrate the moment where the divine nature of Jesus is revealed in its most powerful way yet. Death had no power over the son of God. What happened after the events of Good Friday were exactly as Jesus had said. He would die on the cross but 3 days later he would come alive again. Mary Magdalene was the first to see her risen saviour in person, face to face. She was told to go and tell the others and she did.
 
Later when the other disciples had heard the news and then in fact seen Jesus, truly alive, they were told to go and tell the good news. Everything Jesus had taught them and told them about our loving heavenly Father could now be believed wholeheartedly, because they had seen the proof in the man who walked amongst them with wounds in his hands and feet. And they went with courage now, not cowering, to tell the world.
 
Thank God they were courageous and bold or we might never have heard and our Easter joy would be filled with rabbits and eggs instead of faith fueled hope that our God is in control and nothing can separate us from his love, his protection and his mighty hand over our todays, tomorrows and our days to come.
 
From the book of Romans chapter 8, verses 38 and 39:
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries for tomorrow -not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below- indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
 
HAPPY EASTER to you all, may you know God’s love and let it dwell richly in you, giving you freedom from the fears and anxieties that have hung over our daily lives for so long now.

Find out more about Self-Reliant Groups: http://www.church-poverty.org.uk/srg 

Church Action on Poverty Sunday: St Cuthbert’s Church Event

SPARK newsletter winter 2022-23

Kenny Fields revisited: new hope, amid the tough times

The Pilgrimage on the Margins

Dignity for All: come together to end UK poverty

Dignity, Agency, Power and human worth

“We can make a change. That’s why we’re here.”

A toddler in a pushchair holds a box of rice, at a Your Local Pantry

How YOUR church can build community & save people £21 a week

Speaking Truth to Power: A Reflection on the Dignity for All Conference 

Your Local Pantry: A triumph of community resilience, offering dignity, choice and hope in a time of crisis

In the midst of the dark times, the rapid growth of the Your Local Pantry network across the country, offers a beacon of hope, demonstrating that local communities can be at the forefront of developing practical and sustainable long-term responses to the current crisis. 

Over the past nine months, the Your Local Pantry network has grown exponentially, and is rapidly becoming a key component of a community-led recovery from the pandemic in towns and cities across the country. 

The growth of Your Local Pantry represents a further flourishing of the community-led mutual-aid movement which has a long history in the UK, and which has very much come back to the fore in response to the coronavirus crisis.  Local Pantries, as sustainable member-run food clubs, are a move away from the model of foodbanks, with their focus on emergency food handouts, towards a more sustainable long-term response to food poverty.  More than this, Local Pantries promote health well-being, saving money and building community and social connection, offering their members dignity, choice and hope in a time of crisis.

Our new  Pantries social impact report, published this month, demonstrates how Local member-run Pantries have been instrumental in increasing resilience, building community, saving money, promoting health and well-being for thousands of members across UK.  The network has more than trebled in size from 14 Pantries in March 2020, and is now looking forward to welcoming the 50th Pantry to the network in the next few weeks. In terms of sheer numbers, Liverpool has led the way, with ten new Pantries (with a combined membership of over 2,200) opened by St Andrews Community Partnership, with the support of Liverpool City Council and Together Feeding in the past nine months. There are also rapidly growing clusters of Pantries in the West Midlands, Edinburgh, Cardiff and London, but Pantries have also opened also as far afield as Lowestoft, Dover, Salisbury and Dorset.  On the basis of current levels of interest, the network could quite easily double in size again over the next two years.

A key component of each Local Pantry in the network is ensuring that people have access and choice to good quality food, but the in depth research conducted with Pantry members over the past few months demonstrates that the impact of being a Pantry member extends far beyond simply access to food.  Wider benefits include saving money (£15-£20 per visit, and up to £800 a year per member), promoting health and well-being, offering volunteering and employability and ultimately, rebuilding social connectedness and the positive vibe of a community coming together to address its own needs.  For many members, Pantries also enable them to play their part in saving the planet; reducing food waste, and preventing surplus food ending up in landfill.

An impressive range of partner organisations, have got on board and share the vision of how Local Pantries can help transform local communities, and offer local people dignity, choice and hope. Local authorities from Liverpool city council, through to Burgess Hill town council in Sussex, Oasis Academy Trust in the West Midlands, Peabody Housing Trust in London, a GP-surgery in Dorset, a local arts centre in north Edinburgh, through to a whole host of local neighbourhood organisations and faith groups.  One of our newest Pantries is due to be opened in the next few weeks by the Abbey Community Centre, just round the corner from Westminster Abbey at the heart of the capital.

Pantries are a key component in community-led recovery, but must be set aside action by governments and employers across the UK, to ensure that households have access to secure and adequate incomes, to the extent that they can choose where and how to access good quality food on a regular basis, to live lives free from the fear of having to choose between food or other basic essentials, and ultimately, to live lives free from poverty.

Over the next 5-10 years, our goal is to support the development of a national network of Local Pantries, building dignity, choice and hope for thousands of Pantry members across the country.  Local Pantries can be a key component in rebuilding communities and neighbourhoods, and ultimately a more powerful voice for communities who are too frequently overlooked, neglected, or worse still stigmatised and blamed for society’s ills.

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