Sainsbury’s Amblecote in Sandringham Way took part in a unique one day food collection on Saturday 26^th November, where customers were asked to buy an extra item, which will then be delivered to local charities and community projects by the charity FareShare this Christmas.

Customers were asked to choose from a variety of long-life items including tins (meat, fish, veg, fruit), dried pasta, rice, tea and instant coffee.

The special one day food drive involving over 600 Sainsbury’s stores was run in partnership with FareShare, the national food charity that addresses hunger in the UK by redistributing quality surplus food from the food industry to people who need it across the country.

All fifteen local regional stores took part in the initiative, which also includes Merry Hill, Blackheath, Kidderminster and Blackheath.

Sainsbury’s has been working with FareShare since 1994 but this is the first time customers from all across the country are being asked to actively take part.

BCFB has been partnering with Fare Share; Birmingham sine 2007 and Fare Share; Bristol since 2010

l-r; Wendy (BCFB), Ben Taylor (Sainsbury's), Julie Bate (Sainsbury's; Amblecote Community Liason)

Ben Taylor (Sainsbury’s, Amblecote) with young shopper Natasha Garbett

I found this article by Adi Bloom, and as a bit of a follow-up to my blog of 13/05/2011 (see below) I thought I’d post a link for you

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6088649

The title is ‘Nowhere to Call Home’

“Thousands of young people have to live in makeshift or temporary accommodation while dealing with the pressures of school and exams. Many ‘sofa surf’ with friends, unwilling to admit – even to themselves – that they are homeless. Too often, teachers miss the warning signs.”

At BCFB we’re getting more and more requests for our help every day from staff at schools in our region, teachers/admin/support, they’re having to deal with dreadful situations. We help where we can, and always we need to remember that these are children and most of them do not have the emotional experience or skills to deal with the circumstances they find themselves and their families facing.

How about a two day old baby and parents having to ‘sofa-surf’?

Thank goodness for the health professionals seeing this dreadful situation and doing something about it.

Do I get vocal about such things? Darn right I do!

Happy Birthday Black Country Foodbank?

As we at BCFB recognise our 5th Birthday this week, we are so mindful that we appear to have only ‘scratched the surface’ of the need in our communities.

So, this week any celebrations have be more subdued than you’d think and tempered with the knowelegde that we can only give away what you donate to us and for that trust, we thank you!

• You have journeyed with us from a dining-room table to 5000ft² of storage plus the 8 distribution centres,

• from being told there couldn’t possibly be a need for a foodbank to the statuatory sector asking us to show them how to do this,

• from a few boxes in the back of my car to two vans on the road 5/6 days a week

Some of the other highlights, as we reflect, are:

• • Across the region we have given away “in Jesus’ name” and that of the wider community and incredible 119,120 meals
  • We’ve shifted somewhere in the realms of 124 tonnes of food
  • 2.5 tonnes of toiletries have been distributed
  • Countless items of clothing, bedding and sleeping bags have been given away
  • We’ve been able to touch the lives of over 120,000 people

• We’ve also helped other projects around the region and beyond; who can forget the flooding in Cockermouth? We went up on the Sunday morning with about 2tonnes of food, toiletries, cleaning materials and gifts, surreal
• In the last week we’ve taken delivery of an additional vehicle, bought with specific donations from local Christian businessmen
• Just at head office, our volunteers contribute the equivalent of about 300 hours per week which even at min. wage comes out at about £125k worth of giving
• The need for what we do is growing every day; the stories become more harrowing BUT we keep going cos this is what Jesus asked us to do.

Are we finished, is the job done yet? Not by any stretch of the imagination.

We’ve only just scratched the surface of the need around us.

Church, you are amazing. Look at what you have achieved!

People of the Black Country & beyond, you are incredible. Look what you’ve accomplished!

We’ll keep you updated,

Loads of Love, Wendy & ALL the team at Black Country Foodbank.

Keep up to date with us on facebook or our website: BCFB, ask to go on the mailing list

HOWEVER, there is still so much more to do…..

Please look at our ‘get help’ page to find out when and where we’re open

http://www.blackcountryfoodbank.org.uk/get-help/

Christmas is a strange time for us at Foodbank;

it’s one of our busiest times,

it’s one of our happiest and fulfilling times, BUT

it’s also possibly one of the saddest times…..

Amongst all the frenetic activity and lists of things to do and things to buy, spare a thought for someone like ‘Mary’.

We met ‘Mary’ this week; she’d been made homeless and an agency worker brought her to our Storehouse to collect some food and toiletries. She’d been found a sofa to sleep on for a couple of nights, we were as relived as the agency worker that she was going to be out of the cold.

The volunteers picked her food carefully, asked her gently if there was anything else she needed, “how are you for clothes?”

She only had on a very flimsy jacket and whispered that she could do with a coat; amazingly one was found in just her size and her face lit-up as she tried it on and found it fitted, she looked wonderful! Eventually she and the worker left loaded up with goodies; why am I telling you this particular story?

This ‘Mary’ had a baby too…….

Thank you to all of our supporters; without your donations and gifts Foodbank wouldn’t happen. ‘Mary’ is just one of over 4600 people we’ve been able to feed this year so far, people we couldn’t help without your support.