On March 1st, due to the continuation of Lockdown and the struggles this brought for families, we provided an additional food hamper with a carefully thought out Children’s Scrapstore activity pack to entertain the children.
Here’s some of the lovely creations from the activity packs.
At Easter, thanks to some funding from Bristol Council, we were able to run two hamper collection dates.
On the first date we organised a large hamper collection, an Easter Egg Trail (with chocolate eggs donated by neighbouring communities) and a cooking pack. The children love receiving the cooking packs and trying out new foods. The recipes can be found here.
On the second week, another large food hamper was available for collection, along with a story activity pack donated by Travelling Light Theatre. Families could follow a story trail in Urban Park and they had all the resources to write their own story and create characters with the craft. Here’s one of the stories:
Examples of the reasons why some families are in need of food support:
● A student mother, with 4 children to support.
● A single mother no longer receiving child maintenance as her child’s father is on furlough.
● A single mother with 5 children, 2 with special needs.
● An asylum seeker family with no recourse to public funds.
● A mother living off statutory maternity pay, whilst feeding an additional 2 children.
● A working father with 6 children in a 2 bed flat.
The majority of our parents are working parents on a low income, just about managing in ‘usual times’ but with the extra pressure of their children being home all day, every day, balancing home schooling and working was a struggle both financially and physically.
Annual poverty statistics revealed 31% of children in the UK are living in poverty. 1.7 million children went hungry because their family could not afford enough food. These statistics are for the year leading up to the pandemic. It’s forecasted that the reality now is much worse. This should not be happening in 2021. At St Luke’s, what we are offering is a support to a small number of local families. Here’s what we did this Spring
If you would like to help we are always looking for volunteers to help in the school holidays with cooking, packing food hampers, supporting children’s activities. In term time we are looking for help with communications and fundraising. If you can help in any way get in touch with Amy lunchstlukes@gmail.com
If you do not have the time but are able to support us over the summer by providing finances for cooking packs to families you can donate here .
St Luke's Lunch 