Purley and Kenley Food Hub
Purley Food Hub web-link
All Saints and St Barnabas are enthusiastic supporters of the Food Hub
Introducing the Purley Food Hub
The united response of the Christians of Purley and Kenley Churches Together to the growing food need in our communities in Croydon. It was opened on the 12th Jan 2013 by the Bishop of Croydon, Jonathan Clark, pictured above.
Who does the Hub help?
People in crisis who are without food. Yes, there are people in these circumstances in our midst. They may have been sick or had a sudden change in their domestic circumstance. They may have had their benefits stopped and are appealing against the decision. A series of events coming together may have left them unable to buy food to meet their basic needs. The Food Hub is seeking to avoid creating long-term dependencies.
Food to prepare at home
By providing a balanced mix of tinned and other non-perishable food is available to so people can prepare meals at home
How the hub helps
Where those who are seeking food are not already being helped towards a solution to the underlying problem that gave rise to the crisis to signpost them to agencies that can give them that help. The Food Hub is working to build up its network of these contacts.
Donations
These come from generous donations from the congregations of our churches, individuals, schools, and businesses and by collections at supermarkets. You may have seen a collection at a supermarket locally. Supermarkets are generous in allowing days when volunteers from the Food Hub can invite customers going into the supermarket to consider buying a little extra food to donate. They give them a list of the Food Hub’s current needs. The response is heart-warming. At the Food Hub’s first Saturday collection at one supermarket, customers gave 17 full trolleys of food.
Giving out food
The Food Hub is not a ‘drop-in’. Food is given only to people who have one of the Food Hub’s food tickets. They receive a supply of food for three days. The allowance grows with the size of the family. The image below shows a three day allowance for a family with six children.
Food tickets
The Food Hub has an expanding network of Food Ticket Partners. These are agencies and professionals who work with people in crisis and need. They hold tickets they can give to qualifying clients.
Future demand
Growing. The recent choice of Croydon to pilot the cap on Housing Benefit will affect 800 families in Croydon on its own. As services and jobs are cut people who have previously been in long term employment will face new challenges.
How you can help
By donating food or money at one of our regular collections in church or at a supermarket. The Food Hub is also growing a list of contacts it can call upon when a surge in demand has left it short of particular foods. There are start-up and on-going costs that need to be met. Money donations are very welcome. You can also volunteer to help with the work. There are a range of jobs that need doing? If your work involves contact with people in crisis you might become a Food Ticket Partner.
Contact the Purley Food Hub
Phone07546 635295 or email
Dear All,
Last month’s 2,655 meals delivered to nearly 300 Food Hub clients and their families made it our second busiest May to date (after the 4,590 meals in May last year in the first Covid-19 lockdown).
It means that so far in 2021 we have delivered 15,600 meals to struggling families, compared with 21,600 at this stage in 2020 and 11,700 in 2019.
Meanwhile, deliveries of food parcels to clients’ homes will continue for the foreseeable future, to be reviewed later this year with a possible return to food collections by clients in early 2022.
Louise Willmer, Acting Chair of the Management Committee, notes that recently our number of clients with very young children has sadly increased, and this is reflected in our June food list (attached) which includes:
l jars of food for babies aged 7 months and 10 months l and baby wipes.
Other items requested this month are:
l small jars of coffee l small tins of plain meat such as corned beef & chicken
l cartons of long life whole milk l tinned carrots & sweetcorn
l jellies & tinned dessert puddings
l washing powder tablets/pods l and small bottles of washing up liquid.
Louise says the next step in the Food Hub’s journey back to “normal” will be to move the food stocks and food distribution process from the rooms at the back of Purley United Reformed Church into the Sanctuary again, hopefully in July.
And to help with this transition, Louise says it will be greatly appreciated if from now on donations can be brought to Purley URC on Monday mornings between 9.00am-12.00noon when we have our full team of sorters on duty, instead of on Wednesdays and Saturdays as at present (although donations will still be accepted if deliveries on these days can’t be avoided).
We continue to thank YOU ALL hugely for your kind generosity in supporting the Food Hub’s work. We are most grateful for each donation we receive - of our volunteers’ time and our supporters’ donations of food and money, no matter how big or small. Every hour, tin and pound really count.
A list of our 20-plus food collection points in South Croydon, Purley and Coulsdon where donations can be taken is published on our website at www.purleyfoodhub.net/how-you-can-help.
Thank you to the boys and girls of the 29th Purley Woodland Beavers at Purley Baptist Church who completed a sponsored mini-marathon, asking their families and friends for food donations rather than money, and to Pete and Nicola of Woodcote Park Avenue who organised a food collection among their neighbours and also in nearby Verulam Avenue and Newton Road.
We also acknowledge the wonderful support we received during the pandemic from Sudesh Patel, owner of Londis Coulsdon. For over a year from April 2020, Sudesh and his team kept us supplied with bread for our clients every Wednesday.
Details of some of the money donations we received in May are published on our website at www.purleyfoodhub.net/news, and also on our Facebook and Twitter pages. These include gifts from Croydon Families, Purley Catenians and the Wing Yip store in Purley Way - this last one we were pleased to share with Purley Food Stop, Monks Hill Food Stop and the Salvation Army’s The Vine food bank, New Addington.
Finally, the Food Hub is looking to recruit new Trustees from the next AGM on 5th October 2021, and also another Client Support Volunteer (CSV) to work alongside Julia Lee in ensuring that our clients receive all possible help in moving forward. Full information about these Trustee and CSV appointments is available from Trevor Jones, Chair of Trustees, at pfhchairoftrustees@pfoodhub.uk.
With our thanks and best wishes,
Steve
Steve Hunt - Admin Team
Purley Food Hub
E: steve.purleyfoodhub@gmail.com