It’s been a pretty rough five months since the pandemic started, but we are so proud of what we have achieved in our community. Ordinary folks from across the Caledonian and Barnsbury Wards have pulled together to provide really important support to those that needed it during the lockdown. Our Mutual Aid groups have carried out about 700 simple tasks for people in need in these months - from groceries to prescription pick ups to dog walking. People have been amazing.

Alongside that we have also been running a foodbank. The lockdown is over but across our communities, peoples’ lives have been upended through job losses, sickness and so much uncertainty. And we need your help to keep that foodbank going.

Working with Blessed Sacrament church at the Copenhagen Street Foodbank, we’ve been providing money, contributions and volunteers so that we can distribute 130 food parcels every week to those in the community that desperately need it. But the funds that we have raised are running perilously low.

On average we contribute about £350 a week to the foodbank and at the moment we have £687 left - less than two week’s worth of cover.

We’re asking if everyone can chip in a bit to help us provide more of a buffer while we keep going. We’re trying to make some more funding applications and we are speaking to people on council about other types of support we can access.

All the money we raise goes directly to food and goods to support those in need. No one is being paid for this - it’s a really efficient system to provide support in our community. You can see for yourself on this platform exactly how we have spent money as it comes in.

So it would be amazing if people could make a contribution, share the link amongst their friends and neighbours, or if you have any other ideas about fundraising events or applications we’d love to hear them.

A huge well done to everyone in our communities who have pulled together in these challenging times. We know from your messages how much it has meant to everyone.

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