Tag Archives: food banks

Preventing Food Poverty with Wok for 1000

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Studies have shown that we are becoming increasingly aware of the negative effect food wastage is having on the environment. Not only is this causing a massive blow to our economy, but we are also wreaking harm to the environment by increasing our green-houses gasses significantly. As well as this, a study has shown that approximately 870 million people go hungry each day so as well as food wastage being detrimental to the environment, we also find ourselves in a moral dilemma. Remarkably, the wonderful team at School of Wok have come up with a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative to help us make some small differences to combat this downward spiral we find ourselves in by making sure this doesn’t have to be a laborious task.

Following on from their previous (CSR) initiative which invited guests to cook double the portion to donate to food banks, Wok for 1000 is the follow-up, one of kind, very first large-scale cookery event and will be showcasing this Tuesday November 1st at Borough Market. Hosted by Jeremy Pang and his School of Wok, they are inviting you to sign up in groups of ten, if you’re part of a small business or incentive, and help to produce 1000 meals. This event is designed to build awareness of the ongoing issue of food poverty across our country and demonstrate how we can work to address this issue in future. The most wondrous part is that you not only get to enjoy a cookery class with Jeremy himself and enjoy your meal after, you will also be producing 1000+ meals which will be delivered across the capital to various different food banks.

The event will feature;

3 hour cookery class with Jeremy Pang and School of Wok expert Chefs.

A sit down meal for all participants

Prizes, goody bags and give-aways from participating sponsors

Following on from the lunch, 200 or so charity beneficiaries will also be invited to Borough to enjoy the freshly cooked meal. Participants will be welcome to stay and volunteer here as well.

Prices will be £100+Vat and ALL Proceeds will go be donated to charity Plan Zheroes working to achieve zero food waste and hunger.

Find out more about Plan Zheroes here: https://planzheroes.org/#!/

For more info for Wok for 1000 visit;

https://www.schoolofwok.co.uk/partners/wok-for-1000

From a Mother to Another: 66,000 items of baby clothing saved from landfill & sent to those in need

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A small boy in the refugee camp in the Bekka Valley.

A small boy in the refugee camp in the Bekka Valley.

66,000 shoes, boots & items of baby clothing saved from landfill & sent to those in need.

From a Mother to Another, the initiative from JoJo Maman Bébé, starts collecting again on 1st Feb 2016. The aim; to reduce the shocking levels of clothing waste that end up in a landfill whilst helping those in need in the UK with distribution via food banks plus helping thousands of Syrian refugees living in Lebanon.

JoJo will be collecting good quality outgrown or unwanted baby and children’s clothes in, sizes 0-6 years, at their 72 stores across the UK and Ireland. Customers are requested to make up complete outfits to give something worthwhile this mother’s day.

Nearly a third of the UK’s clothing ends up in landfill, equating to 350,000 tonnes a year. By extending the life of clothes by just three months of active use, carbon and water waste could be reduced by up to 5-10% a year. Sending good quality, little worn hand-me-downs to those in need could mean they are worn by many more children.

From a Mother to Another

The emergency clothing packs will be distributed by some of the Trussell Trust’s 420 Foodbanks across the UK and by a number of partner charities on the ground in Lebanon. Helen Frank’s from Trussell Trust explains why she jumped at the chance to get involved;  “I am delighted Trussell Trust Foodbanks will be participating in the From A Mother To Another campaign with JoJo, it is a natural fit to The Trussell Trust’s ‘More Than Food’ approach, which offers additional services to help alleviate poverty in the UK. Over a third of three day emergency food supplies provided by Trussell Trust foodbanks go to children in crisis. From a Mother to Another is a perfect way for one mum to bring a little light and a lot of comfort to another.”

Laura Tenison, founder & CEO of JoJo, visited refugee camps in the Bekaa Valley on the Lebanese Syrian border late last year. As a result JoJo launched an urgent appeal to collect winter shoes and boots for the children living in tents, now under snow. Customers reacted with empathy and the thousands collected are currently being distributed on the ground to refugees with so little.  Laura explained what she found when visiting the camps; “The situation is dire and the millions of women and children living in makeshift tents are in urgent need of emergency humanitarian aid to help until it is safe to travel home – just a few miles across the border. They left Syria with whatever they could carry. Their children have outgrown their clothes long ago and are often in rags. The gift of a FAMTA pack brings tears of gratitude. Children are dying from the cold, we just had to help.”

JoJo Maman Bébé will cover the extensive costs of checking, sorting, shipping, customs clearance and managing the logistics of delivering the parcels to the partner charities in Lebanon and to the Trussell Trust’s Foodbanks across the UK.

 

 

Politicians Get £400 Per Month Food Allowance While Families Go Hungry

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It has not been a good time for the general public recently. In the past few years we have learned that some of our politicians are corrupt (the expenses scandal), that some of the Metropolitan Police Force was on the pay role of News Corporation, and that some of the press dealt in illegal activities to get their stories. Is anyone on the straight and narrow these days?

While ordinary people feel the pinch along with everyone else MP’s are legally claiming £400 per month on food. In fact, politics is the only career that I can think of where your get a food allowance and also get your rent or mortgage paid. All by the taxpayer, who can barely afford to live.

Recently I watched a brilliant documentary that was on the BBC called Britain’s Hidden Hungry. This was along the same lines of an excellent Marie Claire magazine article that I recently read. The documentary focused on food banks in Coventry. Food banks are on the rise now as families tighten their belts. Their are 11 food bank in Coventry. They are called Hope Centres and are set up by a Christian charity. A voucher is given to you by social services if you are deemed in need. Each voucher gives you 3 days of food.

Two more food banks are opening every week. The food bank in Coventry fed 10,000 people in 8 months. These food banks are on the rise all over the UK. Sometimes people need them as they have fallen down a benefits hole. One young women in the documentary who was in full time education only ate one meal a day because she was not eligible for benefits. She was even told to have a child by an employee at the benefits agency so she could apply for benefits.

I know quite a few politicians and they are not all corrupt and horrible. Some of them go into politics to help people and do good. But you have to wonder why in the current economical climate they are making cuts to benefits and the price of everything is rising above inflation that MP’s still get their food and rent paid for them. Especially as their constituents will be surviving on the bare minimum. If they really want to make more cuts, maybe that would be a good place to start?

Some MP’s do not even seem grateful at being in the only profession I can think of that pays for your food and rent and are still taking advantage of the situation.

David Amess is one of 27 MPs who claim expenses up to £20,000 a year to rent a second home in London while letting out the property and pocketing the cash. But he is doing nothing wrong according to parliamentary rules, just moral ones then.

Amess’s constituency home is in Essex, a mere 41 miles from Westminster. One wonders why MPs cannot commute like the rest of us. Amess owns a home in South West London, rents another at the expense of the taxpayer AND was claiming expenses to stay in a hotel in London.

The MP hit taxpayers with 23 separate expenses claims for ­hotels since July 2011.

Is one of the reasons so many MP’s are happily pushing through more austerity measures, because the austerity never affects them? Maybe a dose of reality is in order.