Dear reader, this posting is already long overdue, but there is a good reason. I started the new year embarked upon a new venture ensuring those families and individuals in need in our neighbourhood do not go to bed hungry at night.
If you have followed my earlier postings, you will know that over the last year or so I have been helping in my community to feed the hearts and minds of people through a 'shared reading aloud' initiative. I have also been working with local residents to ensure that we maintain our local library service in the face of swingeing local council budget cuts. It was then, just a couple of weeks before Christmas, I was given an opportunity, out of the blue it seemed, to work with our local Food Bank.
There are over a hundred such organisations operating around the country, all serving vulnerable families and individuals who face basic hunger as one of the immediate consequences of a change in their circumstances - albeit unemployment, family break up, or a delay in receiving welfare support or benefits. The operation depends heavily on local people, churches, schools and companies donating food to the Food Bank. I have been amazed at the generosity of these communities, bringing bags of shopping to us every week. We also work closely with referral agencies in the city, who make the initial assessment and provide the vouchers which ensures the families get a balanced supply of food to last them three days, which is hopefully long enough to cover the period before their support arrangements are sorted out. I initially got involved on a 'let's just give it a try' basis and now I'm completely caught up in the work - it is demanding but satisfying. The spirit of local people helping each other is very strong and inspiring.
The phrase 'let them eat cake' is one that is popularly supposed to have been uttered by Marie Antoinette (1755-1793). It seems however the evidence for this is little more than a mention in Jean Jacques Rousseau's (1712-1778) autobiographical work 'Les Confessions' about ' ..a great princess who was told that the peasants had no bread, and who responded: 'Let them eat brioche.' The rest, as they say, is history!
Last week, I collected a donation from a local company which involved an 80 mile round trip up the motorway in our van. It was to pick up a load of 81 trays from an order that had been cancelled at the last moment and was taking up space in the warehouse. Within twenty four hours, families, individuals, and organisations whom we serve, were tucking in to a special treat of chocolate chip...brioche. It was a day when it seemed everyone could have their cake and eat it!
