Food and Kindness

Creating a food distribution hub at the start of lockdown

We have supported around fifty Handsworth families every week since the start of lockdown thanks to donations from local people, businesses and charities. We have provided a food parcel packed with nutritious tinned and fresh food, recipe ideas and accessible learning resources for children. 

Project Manager Debz explains how we started:

“We knew that some families would really struggle during lockdown because of a lack of school meals, loss of jobs and fewer charities or local projects being able to open.  So we contacted the schools in our network and asked for referrals - people who could really do with some extra support during this horrible time.  Once we’d got in touch with other charities that support food distribution, our Better Care Together project was born!”

Our conference centre looked less like a corporate venue and more like a food warehouse within a week, with donations from local people, local businesses and charities such as Gurdwara Aid, Sewa Day and Fareshare.  It was really heartwarming to see.  

As well as food donations we have received toiletries, clothes and toys.  Thanks to extra funding we’ve been able to help people get a bit more exercise during lockdown too, providing indoor and outdoor games packs for families to play together. 

It was really important for us as an education-focused Association that we continue to provide learning opportunities and support. We know only too well that many of the families who attend Handsworth schools don’t have access to the internet or computer equipment, so using online resources can be a real challenge.  We created accessible (paper-based!) and fun learning resources to help children actively learn at home while schools were closed. These are still available, on our resources page [link] and in hard copy, for children who are self- isolating. 

We are so glad that schools are open again, but we know that the struggle of scarce food and resources within households is a very real one, so we’re going to continue our Better Care Together project for a while longer.  

If you would like to help us to organise food parcels or you would like to donate, then please click here to donate financially [link to Local Giving.org?] or click here to find out times and location of food donations.