M&S Greenwich

We opened Evelyn Community Store in Deptford on 26th February 2019. We are in one of the most deprived London boroughs and our aim is to reduce food poverty and the stigma attached to it. The community store offers an alternative to a food bank and ensures members have food each week. It’s run by local volunteers in partnership with Lewisham Homes and FareShare which consists of chilled, frozen, fresh and ambient stock. Members visit the store once a week, pay £3.50 and receive a range of groceries, provided by Fareshare, but we also understand that their is a greater need in the fight to combat food poverty, so any surplus food we are able to obtain is given out free. To be a member of the store you have to either be a family/person or couple on a very low income, or be in receipt of benefits and struggling to pay your bills. We have 85 members and already have a waiting list. The project has made us realise how difficult it is for people on a low income to ensure they are eating at least one meal every day. Whilst our aim is to provide food for our members we have become increasingly aware of how isolated many of our families are. It is almost the festive period and we are hoping to pair up with a store local to us so that we can ensure as many families as possible have food over the Christmas period for a least a few days if not more. It will mean so much to our members to be able to take food home and know that they can eat well and will let members know that they are not forgotten about during the festive period and hard times. Our members consist of young single parents, young couples single people all ranging in ages, as well as the elderly and people who are disabled. Also if there is any chilled foods we can transport them safely in the chill boxes we have.we are currently feeding over 500 mouths a week, and the need is growing week by week. It has had a massive impact on what we do as and how much we give out.

Barawak is committed to empowering African, Caribbean, and wider local communities by alleviating poverty, enhancing wellbeing, and fostering economic opportunities through programmes like health initiatives, cultural advocacy, and job development rooted in our mission to provide "real help" from the point of need. Our launch, aligning with Black History Month 2025’s theme "Standing Firm in Power and Pride,” will be a free family event including food stalls, sports, health and wellbeing activities, and performances, bringing together 200+ local residents.

World of Hope is committed to raising Youth Ambassadors that will become tomorrow's leaders through our mentoring, training, coaching, and citizenship programmes which will equip them to positively impact their communities. World of Hope has a food bank that distributes food to families with no recourse to public funds, refuge, unemployed and those affected by Covid. We support young people to break the circle of crime. We also provide food for elderly and lonely people in Lewisham, Greenwich, Southwark and Bexley boroughs. We partner with the police, social services and youth offending services. World of Hope has been in operation since 2005. We have been running the Youth Centre for our Youth Academy in Abbeywood since 2008. During the first lockdown the Youth Academy had to close and we had a lot of parents phoning us reporting a lack of food. This was because a lot of workplaces had to close so parents weren’t earning money so couldn’t afford food. We started contacting stores and individuals for food, then created the foodbank. Our food distribution was broadcasted by the BBC during the Covid outbreak in April 2021 which exposed our excellent work and led to a huge increase in demand for our foodbank. We are supported by Greenwich Co-operative Development Agency, Morrisons, Tesco and FareShare. We’re experiencing greater and greater demand for our services, especially food. We identify the needs of the people in the community by assessing their income and status. People do not like to beg for food but when they have no choice they come to us and we provide them with adequate and healthy food stuff that give them Hope. Now they come to Hope up about their mental health issues, housing and children challenges. We don’t charge for our foodbank services. World of Hope received Mayor Award in Lewisham Council in 2020, we also received Mayor Award in 2021 from Royal B. Greenwich; we were nominated by my Councillor Anne Marie- Cousins.