Getir Woolwich

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.

Over the past eight years, Community Needs Foundation (CNF) has worked very hard to build relationships with some of the most deprived and underprivileged individuals in Royal Borough of Greenwich. We operate our foodbank from a community venue in Abbey Wood, South East London, where we sort, and distribute food donations and essential household items to individuals and families in need which includes; family with children, older adults, unemployment/low income, No Recourse to Public Funds. Our service provides a safe and welcoming environment for service users to access support and advice. As a community foodbank, our greatest need is sustainable funding to enable us to continue serving our growing community effectively. We are seeking support to help cover: Core organisational running costs, including rent, utilities, insurance, equipment, and essential operational expenses. Staff salaries, ensuring we can retain experienced staff to coordinate our services, support volunteers, manage referrals, and provide consistent assistance to those in need. Programme funding to expand and sustain our community initiatives, including emergency food provision, culturally appropriate food packages, our Coffee Chat for Over 60s, cookery and healthy eating sessions, and other health and wellbeing activities. Continued food donations, including fresh, frozen, ambient, and culturally appropriate food, to ensure we can provide nutritious food parcels and respond to increasing demand throughout the year. Food and essential supplies, to meet increasing demand from individuals and families experiencing food insecurity. Volunteer recruitment and training, helping us maintain a strong volunteer workforce to deliver our services safely and effectively. With increasing demand for our services and rising operating costs, long-term funding is essential to ensure we can continue supporting vulnerable individuals and families while responding to the changing needs of our local community.

The Clockhouse Community Centre has been an active Community Centre in the Woolwich Riverside Ward for many years. It is a central hub of the local community providing affordable hall and room hires for leisure, sports and arts activities for 60 regular affiliated community groups and venues for training, meetings and private functions. With a newly refurbished Cafe open 4 days a week. We run a weekly Foodbank open to all with no registration. We run an Advice Hub offering support and help with Welfare benefits, debt management, Housing Advice, Immigration and Domestic abuse.