Holiday hunger charities

Community spirit at an all time high

LAURA WOODING looks at what chartities and community groups are doing to support vulnerable people over lockdown

Canned soup © Callie Macarone (Unsplash)

People of the community coming together © Joel Muniz (Unsplash)

One week in December we delivered 1,000 Christmas “ dinners to people who were in the house on their own ”

Lockdown has been difficult for everyone, but how have the most vulnerable been supported? Although it seems everything has stopped or changed in this past year, charities and local communities have not rested. Families who rely on their full wage, kids going into school or people struggling with their mental health during the pandemic have been consistently supported by their local communities and volunteers while in lockdown. From delivering food parcels to giving out free meals at cafes, people are doing what they can to keep support up and the struggle down. Community centre, The Florrie, has always provided help for families in need but continued to do that and more during lockdown. Their food union offers £25 worth of goods for only £5 and has continued to stay open, only now operating in time slots for families to come in and get the food they need. Timothy Tierney, community hub co-operator at The Florrie, said: “In the first parts of lockdown we had the building open for people to come and pick up food parcels. “We were doing deliveries to the elderly who were shielding, then we were doing hot lunches as well, so at tea time we were delivering food. One week in December we delivered 1,000 Christmas dinners to people who were in the house on their own, all done with volunteers and this year we have been doing pretty much the same.” He explained the importance of keeping the support up for the people who would come in before lockdown. “This building was always 40 hours a week of activity,” he said. “We,had a cafe run by volunteers, so this past year has been tough, but we feel like we’ve done everything that we can and still support all those people”.” Chris Brown created Holiday Hunger, a community interest company which delivered over 10,000 meals in lockdown and raised thousands of pounds in donations for local community centres. He expressed how difficult it is to reach out to people and get them to ask for the help they need, finding that people did not want to show their vulnerability. “In October, we opened our cafe for kids to come in and eat, but it didn’t work’” he said. “Some, families are proud and they don’t want to walk into a cafe or places where they get free food handed out to them”. “I think we only gave out around 32 meals over the full week. I actually shut the restaurant for a week because I thought we were going to get hundreds of people coming in”. It seems that people have trust in their local community organisations and rely on their continued support. Reaching out to people they don’t know can be difficult for them.

Tierney said: “On a Monday and Friday I do about 60 food parcel drop offs. Even though it’s something people can’t live off, it’s a way of supporting people. It’s tough because we are the only source of food for people and we can only do that with the donations that we get, so we’re a middle man really. People bring stuff in and we give it out.” There is always a question of what more can be done and it is hard to know where to draw the line on how much people are expected to be doing during a pandemic. But it is always a positive to know that there is a lot of help and support being provided to those who really need it by generous people during this dark and daunting time.