Man it’s been eventful here over the past couple of months…………

The rain kept coming in through the roof an’ windows,  the ‘phones just won’t stop ringing, the emails keep a coming and then the BBC turn up!

Can’t be bad y’know for a little outfit from the Black Country.

Yes, this 2012!

We’ve had a young couple sleeping in a tent locally that we’ve been helping and supporting for about three weeks now.

Please will anyone, who has a heart to, pray that they’re found somewhere to live asap.

And still we keep on feeding and clothing local people in crisis……………

Walsall and Dudley distribution centres are reporting that they’re feeding more people, especially families. For instance I’ve had a text message from Church @ Junction 10, Walsall; in just three sessions, totalling just 9 hours, they’ve fed 88adults & 52 children. That’s 1400 meal equivalents in 9 hours!

Without you’re continued support we couldn’t do any of this.

I’ve just had a lady brought to the Storehouse by a Children’s Centre for clothing and bedding, thank goodness you’ve all been so generous. We managed to find everything she needed with the exception of boys shoes, I know boys can be tough on their footwear.

Because of your generosity we were also able to provide basic school uniforms which means Mum can think about decent shoes for the children in September.

Mum was so grateful and wanted to know how bcfb was started, when we told her about the God-given vision back in 2002 and starting on my dining-room table she started to praise and thank God for His provision

You missed a great time on Sunday;  Blue Watch at Brierley Hill Fire Station held a charity car wash and split the proceeds between The Fire Fighters Charity and ourselves. click here for more info.

Kelvin’s been in from The Storehouse and even though we had 1.75tons of food donated by 300 church youth from across the Dudley borough there are a few items we’re short of, if you wouldn’t mind sharing the burden and asking your community to donate just one item each.

Tinned RICE PUDDING

Tinned TOMATOES

Small Tinned MEAT

UHT (longlife) MILK

and if you wouldn’t mind; JAM as a treat

SHAMPOO

SHOWER GEL

Men’s DEODORANT

Adult & Children’s TOOTHPASTE

Please click here for our full shopping lists and here for our 2012 Harvest Pack.

Don’t forget we’re closing The Storehouse for a break from this Friday, 3^rd August, and will reopen on Monday 13^th August.

If you need anything please email; admin@blackcountryfoodbank.org.uk as someone has offered to check that address daily, all other addresses & ‘phones will be unmanned.

Hi Everyone

We know times are tough out there and you’re being asked to help people in poverty left, right and centre BUT seriously we’re struggling to feed the numbers of families that need our help.

Yesterday we had not one tin of fruit on the shelves and only six tins of tomatoes. We have NO Vegetarian Ready Meals and only approx. a week’s supply of Breakfast Cereals.

We know that our stocks get low in June (have done for the past five years) but the level of need is increasing daily but the stock’s not keeping apace.

Please, please would you buy one item from our shopping lists to donate and drop it off at any of our Distribution Centres or a local church and let them know it’s for Foodbank.

Thank you so much for your support over the last six years,

You’ve fed an astonishing 18770 people in those six years, how amazing is that……..

Wow! What a week this has been, and it ain’t over yet…

Many, many thanks to all the folks at the BBC, you’ve been amazing (Emma, Abigail, Phil, Sarah, Andy, the other cameraman, Nick & Suzanne), you can read more here on the BBC web site.

Many thanks also to Paul at ‘Our Plaice’, Halesowen for his generous offer of vouchers for our local families to have a fish and chip meal on him, amazing!

We’ve had lots of calls, texts, emails and facebook hits wanting to know how to help, well…… I’ve just added a new page to this very web site ‘Harvest-time Collection Ideas’ , you can have a look there for another idea.

Can you help to keep our shelves stacked?

Please remember, the school holidays are not over yet for the families we’re trying to help and the Christmas holidays then start to loom.

The things we collect can be found here and places to drop off donations are listed here , if you need to come to The Storehouse (our warehouse facility nr. jct3 of the M5) please email: admin@blackcountryfoodbank.org.uk and we’ll let you know where we are and when we’re open.

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…..

They say ‘there’s nothing new under the sun’ but watching the faces of our volunteers this morning has been painful.

other 16yr olds are concentrating on their GCSEs

S has just come in for an extra shift at The Storehouse with TWO shopping lists, not for herself or for stock at the distribution centre she runs, but for TWO teenagers who presented, separately, at BCFB

One, 16yrs old, still in school uniform, trying to sit for GCSEs, has been made homeless.

He’s got nothing!

No change of underwear, no bedding, no food – 16yrs old!

society?

The other one is a wheelchair user and again has NOTHING, but the one thing they have in common is they’re both homeless teenagers.

S is up on the mezzanine gathering together clothing, bedding etc; she got them both fed yesterday and issued toiletries.

They’ve been found accommodation by a housing association; well done…BUT what is happening to us as a society?

Last time I sat and ‘blogged’ I penned the thought about the day I’ll be able to say we’re not needed anymore, that day just seems so much further off this morning.

D’you know if our volunteers weren’t moved to tears, as they were today, I’d be worried.

Our volunteers are amazing; they selflessly give & give again without asking for anything in return.

Our communities around the region are fantastic; we let you know what’s needed and YOU send/bring it into The Storehouse, Thank You!

It’s now late afternoon, I’ve been trying to write this since 10:00am but the ‘phone keeps ringing and the emails just keep coming in with requests for our help.

Try this one (this afternoon): 2 Adults, 2 Children + 3Young Adults in a relatively affluent area of the Black Country and the children’s school has contacted us…..the family haven’t got any food and their benefits have been cut. On top of that one of the young adults is very pregnant and has nothing for the impending arrival of a precious life.

Can we help? Of course, what would you do?

Just gone 3:00pm and the ‘phone’s just rung again, this time it’s a Children’s Centre worker looking for help for a family of six but it’s ok because the volunteers have said they’ll stay later and wait for the worker to arrive so that they’ll know the family have at least been fed.

Click the links to find out the kind of things we need you to donate…

Hello Everyone

It’s April, a quarter of 2011 has been and gone…..

Foodbank has been very busy serving the community and I thought it was time for an update.

I should be at a meeting, questioning Francis Maude MP, BUT we’re short-handed at The Storehouse today and I thought my time would be better spent here, helping out and talking to you.

There’s no need to get a calculator out; we know and can see we’re getting busier…..

More and more agencies and community groups are asking for our help; sometimes they need our vouchers/service for the first time or they don’t know who else to ask.

When I visit an agency for the first time, I’m always conscious that they need to know not just what we do BUT who we are; “A Christian, faith and church based charity” and stress, “we make no discrimination as to whom we feed. If they’re hungry get ‘em fed!”.

Yesterday I visited one of our distribution centres and met a lovely young man who they’ve been helping, he’s been found somewhere to live and had his food voucher however he needed something else….He’d arrived yesterday morning very angry, visibly distressed and frustrated; by the time he left though, at closing time, he had hope.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not for one minute saying everything was sorted out, far from it but because of the unconditional love he received not just on this visit but on the previous one as well, he felt Foodbank/church was a safe place to be even though he was feeling all the negative circumstances were piling in on him.

When he left yesterday; we’d contacted The Prince’s Trust to see about getting him on a ‘Team’ for 12 weeks, got together a shopping list for his bedsit; he hasn’t got a bed or anything to cook on amongst other basic items that you and I take for granted every day and we know we have a man’s cycle in the warehouse that’ll make his life a little easier.

Do any of the team that sat with him get paid? No.

Are their hearts as big as they are? Yes

Why do they do Foodbank? Because their faith and love for their neighbour compels them.

Whether you’re donating a single tin of food, a toothbrush or a quid….

Please accept our heartfelt thanks.

In March you donated a whopping 2½tonnes of food, but

we sent out 3½ tonnes to the distribution centres!

So, what does this mean to you, what am I asking of you?

1.      Please keep donating as the reserves of stock are getting smaller each week

2.      Act as a champion for Black Country Foodbank

a.      Schools, colleges and nurseries; get pupils, students, parents and children involved in collecting food, toiletries and sponsorship. http://www.blackcountryfoodbank.org.uk/supporters/ or http://www.blackcountryfoodbank.org.uk/supporters/financial-support/ if you want to give financially.

b.      At work; get permission to have a collecting box, offer to bring the donations to us, our address are here: http://www.blackcountryfoodbank.org.uk/get-help/

c.       Come and volunteer at our warehouse; our regular volunteers need a break now and again. Can you lift a can of beans, make a cup of tea, answer the ‘phone, put food on and take food off a shelf – YOU can volunteer! Are you available Mon – Fri between 10:00am & 2:00pm = YOU can volunteer! volunteers@blackcountryfoodbank.org.uk

d.      Talk about us and raise awareness at your place of worship; don’t know what to say come and see us. Spend some time at The Storehouse, you’ll have loads to speak to people about admin@blackcountryfoodbdank.org.uk to arrange a visit.

I’ll let you know how many people we’ve fed on your behalf during March asap

In the meantime, Thank You so much for all your help and support,

05 April 2011
Update on our young man we told you about:

he’s now got a bed, toaster & iron; Thank You Loaves & Fishes___

Junction 10 have organised a sofa etc___

BCFB found; hotplate, m/wave and kettle (all been PAT tested)

BCFB took over some of this today (wouldn’t fit in Esther) someone’s car was full including a bike.

He’s signing-up for Prince’s trust ‘Team’ and he’s had an emergency payment from Job Centre.

When I left him today he seemed a lot more relaxed. Phew!

Now we just pray……