Every day people in Bristol struggle to put food on the table for reasons ranging from redundancy or benefit sanctions, to receiving an unexpected bill on a low income. Increasingly, parents skip meals to feed their children and people are forced to choose between paying the rent and eating. The North Bristol Foodbank, as part of the UK-wide Trussell Trust Foodbank network, provides a minimum of three days emergency food and support to people experiencing crisis. In Bristol, there are three Trussell Trust foodbanks and a number of independent foodbanks (networked together under the 5k Partnership - www.5kpartnership.org.uk).

Volunteer experiences

‘Clients come in so broken. In fact some people come in shaking because they’re so ashamed and embarrassed… And they seem to know they can share with us. And by the end of it there’s definitely hope in their eyes. There’s definitely a change in them.’

‘People are embarrassed when they come often, and we make, we really try and make them feel accepted and at ease.’

‘I've had to reign in my attitude and preconceived thoughts about people - to think about why someone is there, what somebody's story is.’

Update from this term

•  Over Harvest and Christmas, over 15 tonnes have been generously donated from the public through supermarket collections, schools, churches, general public donations and many businesses.
•  75 Christmas hampers made up for partner organisations to distribute to their most vulnerable people that they are working with. We also gave Christmas food bags to all our clients during December.
•  New partnership formed with UWE during this term and the financial collection from the UWE Carol Service at Bristol Cathedral was donated to the foodbank.
•  Jon Dobson started working part-time as foodbank Assistant Manager at the beginning of October. Huge blessing to the foodbank team.
•  At the end of November, the foodbank acquired a white van for use in transporting food regularly during the week and on supermarket collections. Already well used!

Urgent Needs

We are looking for medium term and long term term storage/warehouse facilities that are dry, clean and secure. If you have any ideas then please speak to Stewart North or contact the foodbank office.
www.northbristol.foodbank.org.uk | www.facebook.com/northbristolfoodbank | www.twitter.com/northbristolfb

(Update from Clair Thomas - Children’s Church Leader with Rachel Semeraro and Paul Skipp)

I love Psalm 139. The awe and the wonder of realising how well our God knows us. That he knew us before we were born, he formed us along with creation. That each of us are fearfully and wonderfully made, from the youngest to the oldest of us. It's easy to believe these facts when we think of others and especially of children but when we look inwards at ourselves it's  easy to forget. We look at ourselves with a negative worldly view instead of a Godly view. Something I've noticed about the children of Ebe is that they are so open to these kinds of truths and to allowing more of God into their lives. It truly is a privilege to spend time with these children not only because they are great fun but because we can learn so much from them about coming to God with childlike innocence and trust.

During the Autumn term in Children's Church we have had lots of fun and games, we have learned more about God's unconditional love for us and also how closely he walks with us. Here are some highlights: There has been cup stacking, sticky craft, water flicking, raucous praise, relay races, blind folded assault courses, balloons and lots of sand. In amongst all that we've talked about Jesus and Peter walking on the water and how getting out of the boat can be scary but that Jesus is with us through it all even when our faith is shaken. We were also learning about what it means to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly, creating some beautifully messy hand and foot print posters. A personal highlight for me in the Red Lasers group was a discussion about heaven, thinking about our own ideas of what it might be like and looking at what God promises.

Next term we are looking forward to lots more bible stories to learn from and some messy games. There are also some challenges that come with the blessing of having so many children at Ebe. If you are interested in getting involved please don't hesitate to contact me.

Silly game of 'Guess the carol', during our Christmas Day service today... Any ideas?

Shown at our End of Year Celebration evening this week, check out a snapshot of what happened over the last year.