Learn how to pick fruit in your neighbourhood and save it from rotting Tuesday April 23rd St Raphael's Edible Garden

 

There are so many gardens with apple and pear trees where the fruit just falls and rots. Learn how to shake it off the tree into a tarpaulin and what's involved in starting a group to put fruit to good use with foodbanks etc.

Sufra launch Ramadan Appeal 'Seeking Sanctuary - Finding Hope' - your donation will be match funded, Help the homeless and the hungry

 

 

 Thanks to the Islam Channel for the video

 Message from Sufra Foodbanks and Community Kitchen

Whilst many of our team observe fasting during this month of Ramadan, it’s sad and distressing that a growing number of our guests don’t even have enough food to break their fast.

 

Youssef, a young Sudanese refugee, is just one of many of our guests in this situation.

 

Youssef came to our food bank this week in desperate need of hope. He had been sleeping on the streets for weeks, with no food or adequate provisions to keep warm. He had lost faith in getting the support he needs over Ramadan.

 

As we do with a growing number of refugees and people seeking asylum who have been made homeless, we are making sure Youssef now has a nourishing Iftar every day.

 

Meanwhile, we are paying for emergency accommodation to keep Youssef warm, dry and safe – whilst fighting for his right to a decent roof over his head.

 

With record levels of demand for food aid at Sufra, and homelessness reaching new highs across London, we can’t do this without your help.  

 

 

At a recent Advice drop-in, Ahmed (a refugee from North Africa) turned up in complete despair. Despite his physical disability, he was evicted from his Home Office accommodation without any support, and left to fend for himself on the cold streets of London.  

 

Using our Samaritan Fund, our Advice Team arranged emergency accommodation in a hotel that met his medical needs. We provided food aid and support with his benefits, whilst working to secure his right to a decent roof over his head. 

 

This Ramadan, Sufra’s thoughts are with people like Ahmed, who have been forcibly displaced and are bravely establishing new lives in London. Those who have fled war, abuse and life under threat. Those forced to leave their families and seek sanctuary in a foreign land. 

 

Donate Now to Help Sufra Support People Like Ahmed  

 

Sadly, when a person seeking asylum reaches the UK, their basic human rights are ignored and they are often treated like second class citizens. Every day our advice workers are faced with some of the most inhumane and heart-wrenching cases, and it isn’t the situations they are fleeing but the ones they are facing here. 

 

As soon as a person seeking asylum receives the right to remain in the UK, they are served an eviction notice and have as little as seven days to leave their Home Office accommodation. Many of them are left homeless and hungry whilst trying to find a place they can afford – an almost impossible task. 

When guests come to Sufra, we make them feel at home by sharing a meal and listening to their struggles. We treat everyone with dignity and respect to rekindle their hope and sense of community – all whilst fighting for their basic right to food and shelter.  

 

Please support our ‘Seeking Sanctuary, Finding Hope’ Appeal to help uscontinue to provide food and shelter this Ramadan. 

 

35,000 Meals This Ramadan 

 

During the holy month of Ramadan, our Community Kitchens will be serving free Iftars, four days a week. People of all faiths or no faith are welcome to attend and sample Chef Jas' delicious global cuisine.  

 

Through our network of Food Banks and Community Kitchens, we aim to provide 35,000 meals to those most in need.

 

If you would like to be part of our mission this Ramadan, please donate HERE. 

 

Double Your Donations with Beta Charitable Trust (BCT)

 

We are very grateful to have £10,000 of initial match funding for our Ramadan Appeal from our gracious, long-term partner BCT. This means every penny you give will automatically be doubled and have twice the impact for our guests.

 

Donation amounts: 

• £5 will provide one of our guests with a hot and freshly cooked 3-course meal.   
• £40 will provide a family with a week’s worth of food and essentials. 
• £100 will cover the cost of emergency accommodation for a guest who has been made homeless. 
• £250 will sponsor one of our homeless food drives.
• £1250 will sponsor a week’s Community Kitchen service. 

 

Zakat al-Mal and Zakat al-Fitr 

 

Sufra NW London can distribute Zakat al-Mal and Zakat al-Fitr on behalf of observant Muslims to needy individuals and families living in Northwest London. 

 

All Zakat funds are restricted to providing emergency aid (including food, clothing and hostel accommodation). No zakat funds are used for the general running costs of the organisation. 

 

You can find our Zakat Policy here. 

 

To pay Zakat al-Mal (2.5% of annual savings – restricted to emergency aid) use this link. 

To pay Fidya, Kaffarah or Zakat al-Fitr (£5/person – 100% restricted to food) use this link. 

 

Other Ways to Help 

 

Many mosques, community centres and school are running food drives during the month to help keep our shelves stocked, if you would like to organise a collection please get in touch and we can provide you with one of our iconic yellow bins and shopping lists to distribute in your local community. 

Alternatively, you could also take part in our Ramadan Giving Calendar which is a great way for children to learn about the importance of giving (and adults too!)

 

 

Sufra Food Kitchen - Monday to Friday in locations across Brent - Just turn up for free 3 course meal - open to the whole community

 

Free 3-Day Community Carpentry Workshop Oct 25th - Oct 27th

 

Email billie@sufra-nwlondon.org.uk for more info

Schools are on holiday but still time to drop uniforms off at Sufra for re-use

 

Forest School at Sufra, St Raph's - February dates

 

Tackling Food Poverty in Brent: Right to Food Meeting Saturday March 12th March - All Welcome to Share Ideas

 

A timely meeting as the Cost of Living and Health crises deepen:

We don’t think anyone in Brent should go hungry. 

 

What are the best ways to organise in Brent for food justice and security?

Brent Right to Food want to hear your ideas to develop a local food strategy.

We know there is a huge increase in demand for help from Food Banks and Brent Mutual Aid.

 

This will get worse as living costs rise and force families to choose between heating and eating.

 

WHAT IS FOOD POVERTY?

In 2005 the Department of Health defined it as “the inability to afford, or have access to, food to make up a healthy diet”.  The Food Foundation [1]  says  it is the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.”

Food poverty affects so many of us - including working parents, pensioners, people with disabilities, zero-hours contract workers and anyone unemployed.

 

You may be one of the 11 million people in food poverty in the UK. Brent Poverty Commission found that in 2020 up to 1 in 3 households (17% - 33%) in this Borough live below the poverty line and 22-43% of Brent’s children live in poverty. The pandemic has made this worse.

 

Food poverty has a major impact on our health – hunger, malnutrition and obesity can lead to diet-related illness far beyond childhood and impacts on our mental health. Studies have shown that poor diet is also linked to disability and earlier death. [2]

 

Key Factors in Food Poverty

·      Low income - people simply cannot afford to buy food

·      Variable quality of affordable food on offer

·      Lack of support for nutrition, budgeting and cooking skills

·      More support needed from suppliers and regulators.

 

Most of us acknowledge the problem – so now we need to tackle it together

 

Your ideas are welcome at the Brent Right to Food Summit

on 12^th March at Newman College,  Harlesden Road NW10 3RN 4-7pm..

 BUSES 206, 226. 260, 266, 18 / Bus 187 from Harlesden station [ Overground and Bakerloo Line].

 

ALL WELCOME Free entry  - use the link for your ticket.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/brent-right-to-food-summit-tickets-268924559597

Sat, 12 March 2022   16:00 – 19:00 GMT

Newman Catholic College
Harlesden Road  London NW10 3RN

 

An afternoon of discussion and debate on the Right to Food, and how it can be implemented in the London Borough of Brent.

 

With participation from:

·      Dee Woods, Granville Community Kitchen

·      Rajesh Makwana, Sufra NW London

·      Kemi Akinola, Be Enriched

 

·      Katie Pascoe, Let's Grow Brent

 

·      Clive Baldwin, Human Rights Watch

 

·      Anne Kittappa, Brent Senior Policy Officer

 

[1] [Food Insecurity Tracking | Food Foundation  says:

 “Food insecurity (sometimes referred to as food poverty) is the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. To assess the impact of household food insecurity across the UK, The Food Foundation has been commissioning a series of nationally representative surveys since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic. We track and report on people’s experiences of food insecurity particularly focusing on at risk groups such as families, BAME and ethnic groups, people with disabilities and children on Free School Meals.”

 

[ 2] Health effects of dietary risks in 195 countries, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017 - The Lancet

100 Ace Cafe bikers deliver Christmas presents for Sufra foodbank clients. You can help Sufra too.

 

There was some speculation on social media from people who witnessed 100 bikers dressed as Santa and other Christmas characters speeding in convoy across the borough.

 

All was revealed in the Sufra Foodbank's latest Newsletter:

 This is what Christmas at Sufra NW London  is all about: a community of concerned, compassionate people from all backgrounds, faiths and cultures, coming together to give hope and joy (as well as lots of food and professional support) to people in crisis. It’s inspirational to witness.

A huge thank you to everyone who has supported us so far – including 100 Santas from the Ace Café who delivered presents on their motorbikes at the weekend. What a sight!

As I write this, Fahim, Nina and Prince are rallying our amazing volunteers to start prepping 600 Christmas meals (with free-range chicken and all the trimmings), which will be delivered by another set of speedy volunteers to families in need on Christmas Day (yes, really!) along with Christmas presents for all the family. Many of these will go to isolated asylum seekers confined to tiny rooms in contingency hotels.

Meanwhile, YOU have all stepped up too: we’ve hit the halfway mark in our Winter Appeal, which will unlock the Lady Fatemeh Trust’s match funding. This is brilliant news for our guests – thank you for all your support, especially LFT!

Even more great news: The Beta Charitable Trust have generously agreed to match fund the next £15,000 you donate, which means THEY WILL DOUBLE EVERY PENNY YOU GIVE – so please keep giving so that we can help more people like Adam...

Adam’s Story of Hope

Adam (not his real name) found himself homeless and destitute after a series of unfortunate life events that were not his fault. When he arrived at Sufra – cold, hungry and devoid of hope – he was too embarrassed to ask for food or help. Oddly, he started to fix our broken toilet instead. Turns out he was once an excellent plumber.

We provided him with a regular supply of food and arranged emergency accommodation to get him off the streets and keep him warm and safe. Our Advice Team also applied for a grant to get him the tools he needed to start earning a living wage again. We even found him some paid work.

Adam still volunteers to fix all our dodgy plumbing, but he also has a well-paid job and has just signed a lease on a decent flat.

He called Fahim the other day and told him, “I’ll never forget what everyone at Sufra did for me. I had lost all hope and would have never rebuilt my life without you guys. God bless you all.”

The Tip of the Iceberg

We hear touching stories like this every week at Sufra. It’s what keeps us going.

But Adam is just one of the hundreds of people who will come to Sufra for emergency food and support this winter – and we can’t give them hope without your help. 

Please click here to donate to our Winter Appeal.

Call for Council to declare Brent a 'Right to Food borough' to overcome food insecurity - sign the petition

 

A newly formed group has launched a petition calling on Brent Council to declare Brent a 'Right to Food borough'. The petition is HERE and its explanation below:

 

We are seeing a crisis of food poverty born out of the political choices and systemic failings created over the past four decades which have now reached a tipping point for so many in our communities. The figures are devastating for one of the richest nations in the world, highlighting the pervasive food inequality in the UK today.

The pandemic has exacerbated existing food insecurity, with a massive increase in emergency Council assistance and the use of Food Banks in our Borough. Sufra NW London food aid reported a 200% increase in demand for food aid during the initial three months of the pandemic alone, and the situation is likely to worsen as the furlough scheme is scrapped and rent eviction bans are lifted. Food poverty is the result of structural injustices connected to health, housing, employment and wider social inequalities. It needs systemic solutions that empower communities with public resources, including land, retail space and procurement directed toward a more just and sustainable local food system.

Brent Right to Food was launched on Saturday 10 July with the aim of bringing together the various community initiatives seeking to address food insecurity in our Borough. 

We ask Brent workers, residents and communities to join our call for 

(a) the Leader of the Council Muhammad Butt to declare Brent a Right to Food Borough in support of the national campaign led by Ian Byrne MP

(b) the development of a Brent Food Justice Strategy in partnership with local food organisations that can ensure all Brent residents have access to affordable, nutritious and culturally-appropriate food every day of the year across their whole lifetime

Please support Sufra Foodbank's Covid-19 Winter Appeal as they call for a more just and beautiful world

I am sharing this message from Sufra Food Bank and Kitchen as it puts their amazing work into a wider context and because they deserve support.

 

What would Jesus do? Some 2000 years ago He spoke of love, goodwill to all and the importance of being a good Samaritan.    Today, the whole world is on the brink of an unprecedented economic depression, the gap between rich and poor is obscenely wide, and millions more people are unable make ends meet. Independent food banks like Sufra never dreamed they would be so busy.

How did this happen?    We could go back to the 1980s, when social housing and our sense of community was first undermined by government policies. Then there was the financial crisis of 2008, which led to years of austerity that devastated public services and critical safety nets. (Cue Universal Credit fiasco.) Just when we thought things couldn't get any worse, we were hit by a pandemic of biblical proportions. Never have the consequences of decades of injustice and inequality been so starkly revealed and painfully borne by society – especially the BAME communities we support.    We’ve dug ourselves a hole so deep that there can be no going back to the fantasy of pre-pandemic ‘normality’. There’s been nothing normal or good about Sufra’s Food Bank queues over the past 7 years. No, we need a far more radical vision for creating a truly sharing society that upholds the Common Good. One that our food bank guests would approve of.

Beyond Food Aid   Food banks are not the solution to hunger. Indeed, they are a part of the problem when people of goodwill  - not governments - provide the crucial safety net that prevents hunger and destitution in our communities.    But for now, we have no choice but to continue.    As I write, our staff and volunteers are preparing a hearty feast for 600 people, to be freshly cooked and delivered on Christmas Day, and we’ve been distributing surprise Christmas hampers and presents to our food bank guests all week – alongside their food parcels.    And we’ve already transformed our work to deliver more food and other essentials to people in crisis during the pandemic. You can read more about what we did here. We are busier than ever and we still really need your help. So please consider volunteering over Christmas/New Year or supporting our Covid-19 Winter Appeal.

A Community United No matter how much food aid we distribute, it will never be enough. That’s why we will be raising our voice to call for real change in 2021 – and I hope you will join us.    Until then, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to all our phenomenal volunteers, donors and supporters who have made what we do possible this year – under the most challenging circumstances imaginable.    It’s been utterly inspiring to see our community unite against the threat of hunger and destitution and provide a lifeline to thousands of families experiencing crisis and isolation during the pandemic.    I imagine that’s what Jesus would have done too.    The heartfelt community response that underpins our work should give us all hope this Christmas that the creation of a more just and beautiful world is not only necessary, but possible.  Wishing you all a safe Christmas and a much improved new year.  Rajesh and the Sufra Team.

Sufra's Coronavirus Emergency Appeal: 'The situation is dire'

From  Rajesh and the team at Sufra Foodbank,

“It’s like being in a war zone,” remarked one of our guests. “No bombs or guns, but widespread panic and confusion – plus the fear that some of our nearest and dearest may not survive.” It’s going to be tough, but Sufra plans to stay open throughout this crisis to ensure that emergency food and support is available to the most vulnerable – yet again, they are the ones who will suffer most. But I won’t lie: the situation is dire.  Supermarket shelves are empty. Whilst some fight over the last toilet roll in the store, the donations we rely on to keep the Food Bank open are dwindling and we are struggling to source and buy the huge amount of food we distribute every week. For the first time ever, we are reducing how much we pack in our food parcels to ensure that our stocks can last the duration of the pandemic. We’re also re-organising our services to protect our vulnerable guests (not to mention volunteers and staff) from infection. Last Friday, rather than welcoming our guests inside to enjoy a community meal with us, staff and guests were left heartbroken when we were forced to provide our freshly cooked meal in a takeaway container. Similarly, during Food Bank we are having to hand-out smaller food parcels at the entrance, rather than inviting people in to pick their own fresh fruit and vegetables and speak to our volunteer advisors. This is a fast-changing situation and we are holding emergency meetings every couple of days to make sure we are doing everything we can to support those who rely on us for food, toiletries and support. Every day we are asking ourselves: How long will our stocks last? What do we do when we can’t buy more food or toiletries for our guests? How will we provide food and support when staff and volunteers start to self-isolate?  Coronavirus Emergency Appeal  This is the biggest crisis Sufra has ever faced. The year 2020 already brought with it the highest demand for the Food Bank in our history and the Coronavirus is now exacerbating the situation. The families we support simply can’t afford to panic buy and hoard food; they’re already knocking on our door in search of basic supplies. But this is just the tip of the iceberg… The UK is on the precipice of a recession, which means financial donations to Sufra will decline, while poverty and inequality increase even further. Add to this Universal Credit, low wages, unaffordable rent and the impact of Brexit on food prices, and you can see why this really is such a toxic environment for a food bank like Sufra and the people who depend on us. Support Our Guests Today That’s why we launched a Coronavirus Emergency Appeal last week to ask for your support during this extraordinary period of crisis. We know from our experience that when we unite as a community, we can always find a way to support those in need. Click here to donate. Every £25 you give will provide an emergency food parcel to two people in desperate need, while £50 will feed a family of four. This includes nappies, milk and nutritious food for babies – essential needs for a family with children.  But what we desperately need in the period ahead is long-term support. Please consider setting up a monthly standing order through this page so that we can continue to address the most pressing needs of those who walk through our doors. Alternatively, you can send us food items through an online shop – find out how here. At the time of writing, supermarkets are struggling online too, so please get in touch with us if you’d like to discuss a safe arrangement for a drop-off at our centre.

Write to Your MP! Food banks shouldn’t exist in one of the world’s richest countries – they are a sign of gross injustice and contravene the basic human right to food. When a crisis like Covid-19 hits the UK, it should be clear to everyone why comprehensive and effective safety nets need to be in place to protect the most vulnerable in society. Not just now, but always. If enough people demand something, governments are forced to listen.   So please consider asking your MP to urgently address the root causes of the poverty driving people to food banks. You can find out how to do that here thanks to the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN). Sufra is one of IFAN’s founding partners and we are working with them to support their advocacy and campaigning work, including urging the government to mitigate the effects of the Coronavirus on children’s nutrition – especially those who rely on free school meals. Read more here.