Tough times: can you help?
Times are tough for many people in our city, Norwich. At face value it’s a city with everything going for it: two Cathedrals, great shops and restaurants, access to miles of stunning coastline and the Norfolk Broads. But dig deeper, and you’ll see all of that is irrelevant to many of its residents:
40% of the city is in England’s most deprived areas *
Norfolk has the highest rate of malnutrition in England **
From our own work, we provide thousands of people who are using our Social Supermarket with affordable groceries, social activities and much more
* Norwich City Council report “The State of Norwich”
** Future Health report, “Hiding in Plain Sight”
How is The Feed responding?
Times are also tough for The Feed and many other organisations in our sector. Our funding comes from three main sources, but each is coming under increasing pressure:
Funding from central and local government is reducing. As an example, the Household Support Fund allowed us to give out vouchers so people with no money could shop in our Social Supermarket. This funding ended for us in September.
Charitable trusts and foundations are expected to be providing £500m less to our sector over the next 5 years.
Generating profits by running our cafés and catering business is difficult. Increased energy costs are unavoidable. The recent budget will add tens of thousands to our employer’s National Insurance bill from April 2025.
So, what next?
The needs of our community are not going to reduce, far from it. We want to rise to the challenge not shrink and accept the above financial landscape will limit us. But that does mean we need support.
If you want to help, here are some options:
1. Support us through your business
Setting a target of raising at least £1,000 in 2025 will make you a Friend of The Feed. We will hold exclusive events every 2-3 months for Friends, sharing news, your success and the impact it is making. More on Friends here.
2. Donate
Make a cash donation to our Winter Campaign. This will help us continue our community projects such as our Social Supermarket which provides low-cost groceries to 1000s of people who can’t afford enough food.
£10 would help us buy a good selection of fruit and vegetables to provide free to someone struggling to afford food.
Donate here.
3. Donate food items
Why not donate these essential items we always want to provide to the 1000s of people shopping at our Social Supermarket:
Tins of meat, fish, beans, pulses or fruit (preferably in ring pull cans)
Mince pies, packets of biscuits
Christmas selection boxes of chocolate for children
Packets of noodles and microwave rice
Drop them in to the store, which is at 65 Hall Road, Norwich, from Monday to Friday 10am to 3pm by Monday 16 December please.
4. Book our catering
Use our catering business to provide delicious food for your work events, conferences or social events. You’ll eat well and the profits will help us to ensure someone else in Norwich does too.
The menus of our amazing food and how to book are all here.
How we use your donations and fundraising
Any financial support we receive will be used to help our community. Some will contribute to fixed costs, like our staff, who deliver this vital work.
Summary
Please support The Feed so we can continue to help people in Norwich to eat well, live well and feel connected. Doesn’t everyone deserve that?
If you’d like to discuss this further or visit us to see our work firsthand, please contact:
Chris Elliott, Marketing & Fundraising Manager, chris@thefeed.org.uk or
Gemma Harvey-O'Connell, CEO, gemma@thefeed.org.uk
Case Study - this is the kind of work you will be supporting
Peter is a homeowner who, due to ill health, had to give up his job. He was struggling to afford food and his mortgage, meaning his home was at risk. He had been accessing food banks and didn‘t have any money in his bank account.
Giving up work, having been in employment for 36 years, had a huge impact on Peter and he was finding day-to-day life a challenge. He decided things needed to change and we worked with Peter to help him achieve his goals:
One of our team met Peter 1:1 to understand the issues he was facing
He started shopping in our Social Supermarket where free fresh fruit, vegetables, bread and other low-cost items are available
He wanted to get back into work in some way, so we shared information about our volunteering roles. He decided to help at our Social Supermarket and Community Café on Hall Road and has commenced his training
We signposted him to local social enterprise, Your Own Place, to help Peter with budgeting and debt advice.
Here is how he is feeling now “Life is a struggle, but my mindset is better. I think I know what I’d like to do in the future now and what steps I need to take. It’s made a big difference, knowing I have someone to chat to and offload to, because I often keep things bottled up”