M&S Bexleyheath

Every day, people go hungry in the UK for all kinds of reasons, from changes and delays in the benefits system to redundancy to receiving an unexpectedly large bill for a major repair. A simple box of food makes a big difference, with foodbanks helping prevent crime, housing loss, family breakdown and mental health problems. Bexley Foodbank relies on the support of local people, businesses and communities to help alleviate poverty and hunger in our community. Food donations Non-perishable in-date food is donated by the public at places across the local community, such as schools,churches and businesses, as well as supermarket collection points. It is then sorted and packed into boxes by volunteers, ready to be given to people in need. Food vouchers Care professionals such as doctors, health visitors, schools and social workers identify people in crisis and issue them with a foodbank voucher. They can exchange this voucher for a foodbank parcel of three days’ nutritionally balanced, non-perishable food. The help we give… Our foodbanks offers a lot more than food. Our volunteers offer a listening ear to clients over a warm drink, and signpost people to other charities and agencies who can help resolve the underlying cause of the crisis. There are many ways to help The Trussell Trust as a volunteer from helping at collection points, to stock-taking and audits, to helping us refurbish our premises. We can continue supporting people in crisis thanks to passionate people giving their time to help their hungry neighbours. Please get involved by following our project page and share this project with your friends and followers using the social icons on this page. Click the volunteering tab above to see our upcoming volunteer events and sign up to help us tackle food poverty together.

- Education/training - Children/young people - Provides services Based in Peckham, South East London, we are an after-school music training hub. Salem was established in 2004 to make instrument music training accessible and affordable to young people (YP), especially but not exclusively, to those from disadvantaged, underprivileged, and underrepresented. We also provide a haven for YP to interact, socialise, discuss different social topics, and have a healthy meal. We give planned mental health training with professional practitioners. Classical, Jazz, and Praise music are purposely chosen as our repertoire, as they are particularly effective in lowering stress and anxiety levels in YP. As YP play and listen to these genres of music over the years, it helps them become more focussed and therefore more productive. Through our regular ABRSM exams, we help our learners build points towards entrance into grammar and boarding schools. Our intermediate and higher grades exams help build UCAS points towards university placements. Over 97% of our learners end up going to university. Some of our past learners have played with the BBC Concert Orchestra and Chineke Orchestra. Some have studied music at universities and now have full-time careers in music. We start our trainees from as young as seven years old and many stay with us until they leave for university. Some return after university to either help out voluntarily, or continue their own personal development. We collect surplus food donations from various outlets. Some are cooked on-site and given as meals to our pupils/learners, parents, teachers, volunteers, and the local community. Others are taken home by the same groups of people. Volunteers do all our food collections, cooking, feeding, and distribution. We do not charge for food consumed on the premises or taken away. No foods are resold.

We have fabulous ground in our school which include a recently recovered polytunnel. There is space outside which could be repurposed in an allotment style so the children could grow fruit and vegetables to support our Foodbank and create recipes at home using the produce they have grown. At the moment the whole area needs attention, building raised beds, creating spaces to grow, creating a compost heap. It is a blank canvas and we would love to make it reach its full potential. We also run a well supported and much needed foodbank, with over 600 children in the school including our provision children there is always someone who needs help.