Thank you to everyone who supported our Harvest collection and sent in donations. These are now being boxed up ready to be collected by the Westminster Foodbank. The Foodbank is based at Westminster Chapel and provides three days’ worth of nutritionally balanced (non-perishable) food to residents in the Borough of Westminster experiencing financial crisis, through a voucher scheme. It is part of a nationwide network of Foodbanks overseen and supported by the Trussell Trust.
Food is donated by church members and local people (e.g. schools, businesses and charities) and stored at the church. Volunteers sort and pack the food into food bags. Foodbanks partner with front-line care professionals, who identify people in crisis and give them a voucher. On taking their voucher to the Foodbank centre, people receive a warm welcome, a hot drink and their food bag. If appropriate, they will also be put in touch with agencies that may be able to provide further assistance.
As a church, Westminster Chapel, take their cue from the Bible, and the words of the prophet Isaiah:
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? … If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.”
(Isaiah 58:6-7, 9b-10)
Thank you for helping those in need of this food and support.