Tackling food poverty and isolation in Little Stoke
August 15th, 2023
For many years Little Stoke Baptist Church has run a regular coffee morning on a Thursday starting at 10am, during the winter in response to the warm spaces campaign they extended their hours to stay open until 2pm and offered a warm lunch. Since then the response has been overwhelming.
Rev. Tania Vaughan says, “we saw people coming not only because they were cold or hungry but because they were lonely”. To eat together in fellowship does not only build community, it is Biblical. Many of the stories about Jesus centre around food and hospitality. As a church we really feel called to feed people not only physically, but emotionally and spiritually and so we are continuing to offer a free lunch every Thursday alongside other support services.
With the support of funding from South Gloucestershire Council we have been able to train volunteers in food hygiene, buy toastie machines to increase what we can offer and put everything in place needed to receive our 5* rating from Environmental Health.
This has meant that we are now able to offer other services. We regularly collect surplus food from Aldi on a Monday and Lidl on a Thursday which is offered to the local community. When food is available it is posted to the church Facebook page. The church is a referral agent in partnership with North Bristol & South Glos. Foodbank and works closely with the team there to find sustainable ways of tackling food poverty.
We work closely with other services in order to signpost people to additional support, as a part of this we have had people come to chat to the community on a Thursday from Bromford Housing, Citizens Advice, Adult Learning at SGS and Mental Health support services.
In the past year the space has changed from a weekly coffee morning to “The Place” in Little Stoke to be community, to eat, share coffee and stories and to be welcomed just as you are. The space not only offers a cafe style environment but also a safe garden space, a monthly creative workshop, games, clothing and a toddler area.
We are often asked why we would provide all of this without asking anything in return (although donations are accepted there is no charge for any activities or food we offer). We do it because as Christians we believe in loving others without exception and without expecting anything in return.
At Little Stoke Baptist Church there is a place for everyone.
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