Sainsbury's Sutton Coldfield Walsall Rd Local

We are a group of all volunteers set up in May 2021. We seek to help individuals and families within North Birmingham and Sutton Coldfield area who are experiencing financial hardship and as a consequence are suffering from food poverty. We will actively work collaboratively with others to use and then redistribute surplus food to aim to ensure that no food goes to waste. We will provide a food bank to provide ambient and fresh food parcels to local communities.

We are Assembles of the First Born Church based in Aston Lozells. We are making an appeal for food donations for our weekly foodbank in Lozells, which is a deprived area of Birmingham. We have been running a weekly foodbank since the first lockdown and have noticed the number of families with young children that are in need of support, people who have lost their job due to Covid and the homeless. As part of our usual program for ministering to those in need we provide food and toiletries. We would appreciate any food and toiletries that you could donate to help us to continue to support a community in need. We are currently supporting 30-40 persons per week which only accounts for the adult that collect the food, and not the other members of the family. We keep a robust register of all who collect a care package. We operate the food bank from a building at the rear of the church. We support service users who are homeless, from hostels, local community and individuals who are refered to us by their probation officer who see our sign. We are part of a Whatapp foodbank group who will refer indudivuals to us. At the foodbank we also supply clothes and bedding to individual who require them. We do not charge for our services , all the team work on a volunteery basic to support the cause. At present we do not collect surplus food from any retailers, but other food bank if they have any surplus they will notify us. We have had no local press coverage in regards to the work we are doing in the community. We would be happy to send some photos and leaflets showing what we do at the food bank. We thank you in advance and hope that you will be able to offer us some support. We promise to embrace transparency as we have always done. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me, Monica Bailey or Rev Angela Williamson.

Our Church aims to be a God-centred oasis in the centre of Sutton Coldfield. We provide a range of Christian religious services and also use our premises for a variety of community-related activities. These include: - a community cafe - Cafe Oasis, operating 3 days each week -a food bank - Food4U - a parish nursing service - offering whole person advice and support - a parent and toddlers group - a full suite of age-related Scout and Guide groups for young people - a thriving university of the Third Age for older folk Our mission statement includes the phrase 'all are welcome'.