(no subject)
See, some interesting things have been happening. There are a lot of questions in this, and it's all still in progress.
Background:
Have been in touch with housing department at the local council since we still in the hostel. Have had some superb help from them in sorting out some of the services I have taken that have covered homelessness and it's issues.
Foodbank is in the process of being set up here. DT and I have both become involved in this...though not heavily at the moment. D is doing some work shadowing with them in the next couple of weeks for possible voluntary work.
The problem of homelessness is getting worse here - the same as pretty much everywhere in this country. The amount that it's costing has hit the front page of the local paper here (weirdly significant, I feel).
At the start of the summer holidays I had an email from the lady who used to be our housing officer about a year ago. She outlined that there is a huge problem for families who are in B&B accomodation. They have no kitchen/cooking facilities. They get breakfast. They are running out of money for food. People are going hungry. She asked if I felt there was anything my church could do to help.
My head exploded. My first reaction was "give me my apron, I'm going to just cook. right now. and get in the car and deliver stuff". Because it's abhorrent to me that people are without this kind of thing. I was really really angry.
Once I'd calmed down some I realised that as lovely as that sounds, it's not something I can do on my own. I made some calls and emails and I also booked a meeting with the woman who had called me. I'm currently in a bit of a lull, while other people have meetings about the things we've talked about. But it seems that something might actually come of it. If I let myself dream, then this is something that might become a self-sustaining, helpful ministry that helps people not just by feeding them, but by giving them a place to learn how to manage better when they are rehoused. My hope is that something like this could work as a wing/arm/branch of a foodbank organisation. That it might be worked out by all churches and other groups.
This is purely a problem of economics. If you have to buy every meal outright because you have no or very very little space to store food, what do you have to do? You buy a lot of take out. And that's not healthy every day. Getting organisations to help with this is going to be an interesting problem - mainly because of the laws surrounding the disposal of food as they stand at the moment. Possibly this is going to change, but not in the next 6 months. I'm hopeful that funding might be out there for this, and I'm grateful for the advice I've received from friends and family that have the knowledge. My minister and the minister of a neighbouring church (who is heading up the foodbank planning) have been great, offering ideas and its in their hands at the moment for further developments.
In the meantime, I am in a focus group about homelessness services tomorrow. It's separate, but I'm hoping some of the information might feed in. ....All grist to the mill kids.
I'm sorry if any of this sounds oblique, I'm just cautious about things until they are more solid.