During coronavirus lockdown all public community areas had to close, so we took the
decision to offer all these areas to organisations who were working on frontline of
mitigating the effects of lockdown through re-distribution of food, clothing, toiletries, toys,
furniture and other items people in communities were struggling to access.
We also provided these organisations with a Governance, operational, and strategic
advice services to assist their efficiency and effectiveness.
We continued to operate the private studios with extra safety measures and risk
assessment in place, and we supported the 53 tenants and studio holders with rent
deferments, as well supplying essential items through
our ‘lockdown partners’ as many of them too were out of work during lockdown but still needed a place to create both for supplementary income on their wellbeing.
In addition, we now provide Business Start-up, Social Enterprise, employability support
and guidance to them. We have tentatively made inroads in delivering light touch
counselling and wellbeing support to complement existing statutory services, one
example is a new socially distanced weekly mindfulness group which has really helped
them approach us for help and support they otherwise may not have mentioned.
Since the initial ease of lockdown the charity has had to adapt during these difficult
times and to address the loss of the community spaces and aims to try and replicate our pre-covid services in new ways like online, outreach, etc
The Food Phone:
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of resilient food systems and made
people more aware of the links between food, health, poverty, consumption, supply
chains and purchasing patterns. The lasts months have also shown how food provisions
can be used as a vehicle to bring communities together in inspiring ways. We believe
'The Food Phone Start-up Project' is a way forward that has the ability to sustain itself
and lift the current way of redistributing food to a different level.
The main mission of our project is to tackle food insecurity and poverty in an efficient,
dignifying and sustainable way. Our primary objective is to make good food more
accessible and affordable to those on a low income in our community. The Food Phone
is a new community service offering good food in the safest possible way. The new
service will be free to use by anyone and accessible to as many as possible, with food to
be pre-ordered for collection/delivery through a free to call phone, internet, as well as a
physical “food phone” located at the back door of our premise in London Road. Food will
be free for those facing food insecurity, with the possibility to make donations for those
who can afford to do so.
