‘Feeding our Future’
In the last six weeks we have benefitted from the support of two groups of 16 and 17 young people, who have been taking part in the National Citizen Service (NCS) summer programme. As part of the programme, participants need to plan and carry out a ‘social action’ project, with the goal of benefitting their community in some way.
Both groups, aware of the problem of increasing nationwide food insecurity and food poverty, wanted to focus their project on supporting a local charity which tackles these issues.
The first group, ‘Team Gradient’, got in touch to ask what our most needed items were, and whether they could make up some food parcels for us. They raised £130 (by the boys enduring a sponsored leg wax!) and bought enough items to make up 11 food parcels for individuals, plus some much needed items such as basmati rice and tinned meat. They then used our packing list to bag up the items - ready for us to give out!
The second group were considering supporting The Olive Branch, but were resolved to do so after speaking to our founder, Barbara Kirkby, and treasurer, Paul Holland, on the centricity of community and individualised support to what we do. Based on this, they wanted to focus on raising awareness of our work and how people can support us, and came up with the great campaign slogan, ‘Feeding our Future’.
We believe this captures a large part of what we aim to do: feeding those who are vulnerable, with the hope that it will provide a foundation for them to focus on the heart of their problems, and look forward to their futures - and what they will give to our community, too.
They not only created some brilliant professional posters and leaflets to be displayed in shop windows and handed out in the town centre, but collected items for us on the streets of Lancaster, too. Keep an eye out in town for their work!
The group said: “We hope that our efforts contribute to an increase in donations for the Olive Branch and help those who need help in their darkest times.”
Thank you for your hard work and support!