Argos Reading Forbury

Community development activities including community cafe, we take part in the holiday hunger campaign feeding low income families who are entitled to free school meals during term time, there is currently no such provision during holidays. We also make packages up for families in the local area who have no access to food banks, referrals are not necessary as we feel this is a more relaxed approach for the families. The community cafe has people from ages ranging from newborn to 90 years of age attending, on a monthly basis we hold a community museum for the old and new members of the public to attend, they can share they stories of Whitley to others. This helps combat isolation in the elderly and connects the elderly and young together..At Whitley community development association we believe that we can help empower the community to have a voice and go out and do rather than it being done for us. The cafe is a a place to meet, a place to air concerns, a place to help others, a place to do what the community wants us to do. We have programs running that meet our communities needs. Wcda do not charge for any of their services, we do ask where possible for a small donation to help us carry on the work that we do. Our food surplus project is still growing as we continue to look for more parrtners daily to help with the growing needs of our community.WCDA work alonside a benefits agency twice a week to help those get easy access to services that they would not necessarily be able to. Wcda have recently been on BBC south today and local radio stations to talk about food poverty in our area. WCDA have also just won the Pride of Reading Awards as the charity of the year.

We are a Christian community group providing a hot meal, clothing, community fridge, signposting and support to anyone in need. We love, serve and welcome all people.

ReadiFood is run by Faith Christian Group. We have provided an emergency food parcel service in Reading for over 25 years. We currently deliver over 140 emergency food parcels every week to families and individuals across the greater Reading area. We deliver either directly to homes or via referring agencies. Food parcels are only given to clients referred to us by local agencies. We are very careful to try to avoid dependency developing by limiting the number of parcels we will do at any one time and restricting returning clients. All parcels and recipients are carefully recorded on a secure database. Using a referral system helps to avoid recipients from claiming for help falsely. By delivering, we are also often able to get a sense of a person or family’s needs.