Communities Food Community Interest Company.

Our website address is:

http://www.communitiesfoodcic.org/

 Our blog address is:

http://communitiesfoodcic.blogspot.co.uk/

Our logo:

Food poverty

Food poverty is not something new, it has been around for years.  It is gaining  publicity through the efforts of organisations seeking to bring relief to those in food poverty, but also because the articulate middle-classes are being affected. 

An interesting article may be found here:

http://communitiesfoodcic.blogspot.com/2011/11/article-in-daily-express.html

The numbers quoted in the report are woefully on the low side.

Bed of Nails

I have been active in the voluntary sector since 1996, as a volunteer, self-employed or in paid employment. Most of the organisations I have had an involvement with have not been working in areas which generate the 'aah factor' with the general public. Homelessness, mental health, debt and food poverty do not send the collective pulse racing. Now, had I engaged in activities relating to animals, lifeboats or hospices life would have been so much easier.

Foodbank Organisation in the UK

Two of the major foodbank organisations are:

The Trussell Trust and FareShare

There are important distinctions in the way each operates but it does seem sensible for a foodbank in Kent to link in with one of these two organisations.

Good Works

Many people of faith engage in good works. What worries me is the extent to which some emphasise the faith to which they belong when promoting what they do.

This thought was sparked when I went a Googling for information about foodbanks in Kent. Not a great deal on the Internet, but I did find The Trussell Trust which looked interesting.

The website states the Trust is a Christian charity. Do we need to know this?

My comment is not aimed at the Trust specifically but at charities run by people of faith which fall over themselves to express their faith credentials. It's almost as though they are saying: look at us, we have faith and, gosh, we are good, we are doing good things.

The leading perpetrators of this approach in my experience are Evangelical Christian groups, an approach which makes it difficult for secular organisations to work with them as well as alienating potential beneficiaries.

Christians , indeed all faiths, should be out there doing good works in the community, but why broadcast the belief? Surely it is the work that is important?