The Christian community feeding the city

As we look back on 2020, we’re hugely grateful to the Christian community in Southampton for it’s role as a significant force for good in the city’s food provision - working collaboratively and effectively through Love Southampton and with the local council in response to the Coronavirus pandemic to support anyone who needs help.

The Christian community across Southampton has been supporting people in need, regardless of their background, for decades. The Church has always taken a lead in this area - proving instrumental in the provision of food and clothing through long standing organisations. But with the arrival of Covid-19, the level of support increased dramatically. Many new initiatives started, church-led or otherwise, as people responded to the needs in the neighbourhoods and wanted to get involved helping those struggling. 

At Love Southampton, we’ve seen many such churches and organisations step up to the plate in an astonishing way, and it’s been a joy to help to build partnerships between local government and these initiatives - both new and well established - to build communication and collaboration across the city, enabling a broad and effective network of support. This level of collaboration between such key organisations has proved invaluable and has enabled ministry far beyond the capacity of any one group working on their own.

Professor Keith Brown, Chair of Love Southampton

Chair of Love Southampton, Professor Keith Brown (Founding Director, National Centre for Post Qualifying Social Work and Professional Practice, Chair of NHS England Adult Safeguarding National Network), outlined the scale of the impact:

“Love Southampton has worked closely with Southampton City Council on behalf of the Christian community in the city during this Covid pandemic, bringing their expertise to the City. They have coordinated and pooled volunteers and provided key responses to the vulnerable and marginalised in a highly professional way; offering services that councils on their own would struggle to provide. This has been an enormously effective partnership, especially during lockdown.”

Whilst our work at Love Southampton to equip and represent the Christian community is broader than just food provision - offering support for debt, students, homelessness, isolation & much more - the incredible organisations that make up our food network provide a significant resource for the city, representing 12 locations across multiple postcodes and wards, feeding approximately 1,200 people every single week, with approximately 220,460 meals distributed and a value of approximately £577,000 of food distributed so far (Dec, 2020).

Duncan House, Southampton City Mission

Southampton City Mission facilitates five food banks and a clothes bank, and is busier than ever. In a normal year, they would feed 12,000 people. So far this year, with their busiest month still to go, they have already fed 14,220 people, with referrals from 400 different organisations.

The Big Difference at Above Bar Church has been instrumental in the provision across the city - shifting from a weekly breakfast (Big Breakfast - hoping to restart in 2021) to a major food distribution hub helping feed the homeless (with 3688 packed lunches going to those housed in B&Bs), supporting 9 schools on the east of city with their holiday hunger projects, as well supporting 18 other food aid programs run by smaller groups and organisations.

In total, The Big Difference has given out 4111 food parcels, 720 homeless packed lunches on the street and 39630 frozen meals, and are currently feeding an estimated 250 people per week. The value of the food distributed so far comes to an astonishing £222,450 (Dec 2020). Southampton City Council have also committed to working with The Big Difference for 2 years, with a particular focus on the east of the city. More details on this partnership are expected in 2021. 

Sanjay, who leads The Big Difference, said this: 

Sanjay Mal, Head of The Big Difference

“What started off as a breakfast that served our guests every Thursday, 50 weeks a year, for about 100 people, has adapted to serve 1000s of families in crisis all over our city. I believe the need next year will be even greater due to increased financial difficulty. But what is exciting for me is the number of people that we are now helping in the city, and the difference it’s making. God has opened so many doors for us - this is the opportunity of a lifetime, to be in a position to help our city and make a real positive impact. I would also like to thank Love Southampton for pulling all the different communities together. I really believe we will make a Big Difference to our city.”

The Love Your Neighbour food bank from St Mary’s Church is also still operating locally and city-wide, contributing to the emergency food provision and feeding roughly 200 people a week.

Curate Nathan Leigh from St Mary’s had this to say: 

“Over the course of the pandemic and the lockdowns, Saint Mary’s reorientated the church to become an emergency food delivery service. We have loved playing our part, the scale and quality of the food provision that has come through our partnership with Love Southampton is remarkable. We have so far given out over 120,000 meals specifically to those who can't physically leave their homes. The Love Southampton initiative is an incredible example of churches working together to provide for our city.”

A volunteer for Love Your Neighbour, Saint Mary’s Church, preparing Christmas packages

The Catholic food delivery programme Poitiers Care have delivered food parcels across the city using established referrals and volunteer drivers, as they have done for years, alongside Southampton Lighthouse International Church, Swaythling Parish, James Street Church and other affiliated local groups who are also playing their part in supporting the city as part of the network. 

With support from Love Southampton and our Food Network, the Christian community has also taken the lead in establishing a Food Aid Forum for all of the food providers across the city - whether faith-based or not - to talk, share best practice and co-ordinate the city-wide response. The Food Aid Forum is currently conducting a citywide food aid survey to map and coordinate efforts.

Broader collaboration with both Christian and secular organisations has also proven to be a vital aspect of the city-wide provision - working closely with local branches of Gregg’s, Lidl, Tesco, Asda and Waitrose, as well as Grosvenor Casino, UK Harvest, Fareshare, Safe Families, Testlands Support Project and No Limits. The work represented here across multiple spheres of public life - sacred/secular, charitable/non-charitable - has been a powerful demonstration of the wealth of community spirit and good will. Organisations who would normally, and understandably, have little to no interaction instead are pulling together for the benefit of the city.

Alan Whitehead, Labour MP for Southampton Test, recently said this about the work:

“This makes me really proud of Southampton. It’s living evidence of all sections of the community coming together to deal with one of the tremendous problems in our society in the moment, and working in a humane and straightforward way to get it sorted. That’s the big impression here - it’s no nonsense business, getting on with the task in hand very efficiently, and with little resources too! It’s warming to see it happen.”

The work being done by the Love Southampton team and it’s constituent organisations would not be possible without the commitment and dedication of the hundreds of volunteers from across the Christian community, many of whom have been serving the city tirelessly since March. Co-ordinating and allocating this workforce of volunteers to the right areas and organisations has been a key part of Love Southampton's city-wide role. 

If you would like to join this amazing team of volunteers, please visit click ‘get involved’ at the top of this page, where you can apply for a variety of roles and opportunities across the city - whether it be making food deliveries directly to people, collecting food from partner organisations, helping to create food packs, or something else - there are a number of key ways you could get involved.

If you are keen to financially support the work of the Christin community through Love Southampton, please visit www.lovesouthampton.org.uk/donate where you can make a one off donation of an amount of your choosing.

The Christian community in the city - this broad network of volunteers, churches and organisations - has stepped up to provide a clear, co-ordinated and effective means of support for anyone struggling for food during this pandemic and beyond. The message from the Church is clear:

There is hope.