News from Sufra Foodbank
If you walk into Sufra over the next few weeks don’t be surprised to find groups of young people lounging in the foyer, raiding the fridge or hovering around the office.
This summer, we’ve truly embraced the hug a hoodie mantra - throngs of young people are volunteering for the charity in the office, warehouse and the garden. Although it does mean tolerating some questionable music blasting in the background (Hotline Bling is a particular favourite at the moment) there’s a real party atmosphere.
I’ve met some amazing young people in the last week. There’s 14-year-old Adam who knows how to code pretty much anything, 16-year-old Sami who can tell you everything about breeding quails and is insisting on setting up a chicken coop in the garden, 15-year-old Davina who taught herself Chinese (as you do) and 16-year-old Ibrahim (he’s the “runner” we spoke about last time) who turns out to be an amateur film-maker.
Summer BBQ on St. Raphael’s Estate
We’re opening up the party to the whole community!
This Saturday, 30 July, we’re throwing our third annual Summer BBQ for St. Raphael’s Estate. This year there will be no queues for burgers – Daniels Estate Agents have kindly donated a super
industrial barbecue to mark the occasion. We just have to hope that Ahmed, Parminder and Iwona can cook 500 burgers in 3 hours!
Alongside the barbecue, Dina and Ros will be offering exclusive tours of St. Raphael’s Edible Garden,
Brent Start will be running workshops on healthy eating, cake-decorating and puppet-making (which is what I’m looking forward to!). Ibrahim and Adam will be selling oreo and strawberry milkshakes.
Come along to savour our culinary delights and learn more about Sufra NW London.
Kew Gardens to Bournemouth
We’re really grateful to Brent Community Transport who sponsored two trips to Kew Gardens and Bournemouth for our food bank users, who would not normally be able to afford a holiday or a day out.
One very sweet lady was overjoyed after returning from Bournemouth. “It was great to have some time to forget about all the problems at home.” Very cute.
St. Raphael’s Edible Garden
If you haven’t been around to Sufra recently, you’ll be surprised to see how far the garden has come along! Yesterday I picked the first peach from our mini orchard – our first harvest. It was emotional. And rather bitter for my taste.
Over the next month we need some burly lads to dig out the pond.
[Girls I think you can issue a challenge here MF] To be fair, it’s already been dug out. It just needs to be deeper. Come along on Sundays, between 10am and 2pm to help out. Sign up here.
Bottle Appeal
If you’re organising your own summer party, don’t forget to collect all your 2 litre soda bottles and drop them off to Sufra. So far we’ve collected over 100 bottles to build a
greenhouse on St. Raphael’s Edible Garden, but we need over 1,500 to make sure the roof doesn’t leak!
Rui has been busy in the garden building the frame of the greenhouse, but the walls are looking rather bare. It’s a perfect excuse to overdose on sugary drinks.
Summer Academy
There are no spaces left (I did warn you to be quick), but if you want to sign up in advance for our Food Academy in September, download a Registration Form
here.
Other Volunteering Opportunities:
This isn’t the most exciting role to be fair... We need some volunteers to do some data entry – there’s some with over 1,000 records to be input. I won’t try and sell it. Even I would struggle, despite all my talents. But if you want an invite to Nandos, drop me a line. You will have to work from the office, but we’re flexible on days/times.
If chicken isn’t your thing, or you’re vegetarian, you might want to sign up for our next supermarket collection.
It’s a bit early, but at least you can’t make the usual excuses of having planned a day out with friends. It’s Sat/Sun 3/4 September at Asda Park Royal. If you can flirt with customers, this is probably the right role for you. Sign up
here.
And finally, I look forward to seeing you on Saturday.
Yours,
Mohammed S Mamdani
Director
