Hello and good morning everyone! I read an interesting piece about pausing and reflecting recently and so wanted to share a bit that stood out to me here about ‘connecting’: a connection is not passive. It asks something of you. To sit in discomfort. To stay open when it’s easier to shut down. To speak, not with hard certainty, but with soft courage.’ I’ve shared countless times about how a simple human connection of ‘hello’ or ‘how are you’ or just a smile can make such a difference to someone’s day and this reiterated that to me – especially the ‘stay open’ because when your head is literally or figuratively down, cracking on with the task, you can miss that someone needs to feel connected.
Trussell Comment on Welfare Reform
Following on from the lobby day Jon and I attended, the work we have done with chatting with MPs and the national debate in parliament this week, I thought I would share Trussell’s write-up with you as to our ‘foodbank’ response to this latest bit of news and a plea for action from us all before Wednesday next week:
As many of you have been following, the cuts to disabled people’s social security that we have been campaigning against were debated in parliament. This resulted in a vote in favour of the bill progressing to the final stages, but with substantial reductions in the cuts that were originally proposed. Together, through our joint efforts alongside so many other organisations to call for action, we have ensured close to £6 billion of the original proposal of nearly £7 billion of cuts have been reversed. As we stand in solidarity and reflect on this with each other, we can take comfort in knowing that our voice is being listened to and that together we are building consensus for a social security system that’s fit for purpose.
Alongside lobby day, you have also been rallying support from your local communities and encouraging them to email their MPs to ask them to vote against the proposed cuts. So far, over 11,000 emails have been sent, and every MP across the UK has now heard from us. We know that our social security system should be there for us all, especially when we need it the most. Our collective campaigning has reduced enormously the cuts that had been proposed, but the Bill still contains a significant cut to support for people who become disabled in the future. This means that they will miss out on a huge amount of support – and risk facing hunger and hardship.
With another vote on the Universal Credit and PIP bill due to go through Westminster next week, we’re asking people to email their MP once more to urge them to vote against the remaining proposed cuts.
Please share this new, simple action with your networks. There are only a few days left until the next vote on Wednesday 9th July, but we know the difference we can make when we make our message loud and clear to the UK government. I know that uniting as a community of food banks will be what empowers us to keep calling for the changes that will ensure that everyone has enough money to afford the essentials we all need to survive.
Network Norfolk Communication Awards
This week, Network Norfolk have launched their ‘Communication Awards’
They first did this in 2015 and we were fortunate enough to win an award for our social media accounts (flashback photo attached)! Voting is open, and winners will be based on the quality of the entry, not quantity of votes
You can read more here:
Network Norfolk article and if you know of Christian groups that you could nominate for any of the entries, do get involved!
Social supermarkets
Jo (Trussell) and I attended a meeting this week with
Nourishing Norfolk and representatives from 4 social supermarkets across Norwich, to chat about our desires and vision for those we serve, how we work and, most importantly, how we can work better together. We know there will be people who come to the foodbank regularly for whom a social supermarket (low-cost food and often free fruit, veg and sanitary items) is a better and more sustainable option. Also, there will be people who are members of a social supermarket experiencing a crisis who can’t afford to shop, for whom a foodbank might be the better solution for that crisis period. We had a really good discussion and discovered lots we didn’t know about each other, including sharing the non-food support we have on offer AND the support some of the supermarkets have alongside the food which was really encouraging. Watch this space for more info…
Multi-Agency Working
If I ‘themed’ each newsletter, todays would definitely be ‘connections’ wouldn’t it! I have talked before about how important it is for us to work together and share ideas and get support from different agencies and professionals, in order to best support the person we see. We had a good example of that this week, speaking with a Care Coordinator at a GP surgery about the support they could and couldn’t offer and were able to fill in a couple of gaps that we both had in terms of the info we needed – a phone call and follow up email made a HUGE difference to the person we both know!
NORJAM sign up
This year, we have been invited to have a presence at NORJAM, on The Norfolk Showground. NORJAM (Norfolk Jamboree) brings together Scouts and Guides from across the world for fun, activities and team building – did anyone attend when they were that age or perhaps as a leader? We will be attending for 2 days (14th/15th August) with a stall to share what we do, ask for support from local groups in terms of donations and awareness raising and collecting appropriate leftovers .We have been asked by the organisers to ensure that everyone who volunteers has a DBS check so we are sending out the request for volunteers early to enable the relevant paperwork to be completed. Please can you reply using the link below if you are able to help?
Norjam form
‘That’s Unusual!’
I mentioned ages ago I may start this new topic…
We put in a request for a birthday cake from the wonderful
Free Cakes for Kids, for a girl who would be 11 years old. One of the questions asked if there is a theme or likes / dislikes and we were told she likes cats and specifically grey cats
We always say that the cake is made by a volunteer baker and we can never guarantee that the request in full is met… See attached photo for the result…!
FEEDBACK:
We had a lovely full circle situation at Wymondham recently. I was told that a very anxious lady had attended the foodbank and was ‘gently guided to Alex’ (our Citizens Advice worker) for a conversation about how best we could help. There was concern it was going to be all too much and overwhelming but they had a good chat and then met up again on subsequent occasions. We then received this email that she had sent to Alex
: ‘Thank you so much Alex, you don’t know how much you’ve helped today. I’m happy that things seem to be moving in the right direction and I feel much more optimistic.’ Fantastic team working in the first instance and I love the ‘gentle guidance’ 
and thank you Alex for the work you’ve done to support her!
Happy Friday all and whatever or whoever you connect with today or over the weekend, know that it can have such a positive impact both on you and on others around you, whether you know it in the moment or not
Hannah
