Getir Perry Barr

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.

We provide Housing Support and Management Services to hundreds of Homeless and Mental Health service users all across Birmingham but continue to face more and more issues when it comes to making sure that the service users are having enough food to eat and more people are struggling to afford essential items like food, clothing and toiletries. Why we opened our own food bank? During the Covid-19 Pandemic foodbank usage tenfold and as an organisation we have been able to help the most vulnerable of our tenants during the most challenging of times. After seeing the challenges faced by our residents and the wider community to eat well on a challenging budget, with many stories from our service users of going hungry and struggling to access foodbanks, we decided to make a difference and do our part to start tackling hunger. We know there is always more to do and more people to help and we couldn't do that without the donations we receive from our partners such as Neighbourly and Toiletries Amnesty to receive donations from major supermarkets like Lidl and alongside self-funding further provisions to ensure we could meet a wide range of dietary requirements. We also receive donations from individuals and local businesses which we are so grateful for. “We are proud have been part the Neighbourly Project since 2017, who help us with donations of food and drink items. In 2019 we joined Toiletries Amnesty to further develop our service; they provide much needed toiletries for our service users”. What premises does your project operate from? Our foodbank operates from Vanguard Supported Housing CIC head office based at 23 Kenyon Street, jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, B18 6AR. How do we identify service users and their needs? All our service users are referred for housing through third party organisations such as Birmingham City Council Homeless Services, West Midlands Probation Services. Once accepted for housing they will be invited to attend an assessment and viewing appointment at our head office and at this stage any support goals will be discussed with our lead Assessor if needed any requests for food bank items such as bedding, personal hygiene products and food parcels be discussed and if warranted will be issued before the service user leaves to move into their new home. Support Workers from Vanguard or partner agencies are able to refer their service users to the food bank where our foodbank manager will support them to complete a foodbank referral form and budget form. Are there any other services provided by your organisation other than food support? Our organisation Vanguard Supported Housing CIC houses vulnerable adults in shared and supported accommodation. We provide person We are proud to say that all our services are offered free of charge to all our residents. . We also accept referrals for food parcels from our partner agencies such as Spring Housing and Guardian Housing.

We are a small charitable community group based in Kingstanding, one of the more deprived areas of Birmingham. We provide support to families, the homeless, elderly and underprivileged members of our community. Our main project ' TiCs Food Parcels' is currently helping the vulnerable and those affected by the rising cost of living by providing community members with food parcels on a fortnightly basis. We collect and distibute surplus food donations and essential items from supermarkets, to help people in need. Our other projects include our Annual Boxing Day Meal, Homeless Shoe Box Project, Fun Days and other outside events. We also provide training and health workshops relevant to our community.