Happy July! Here's a round-up of what OMA's community has been up to recently. This is a shorter version of the monthly newsletter, which you can find here.

First: recently, Open Collective has asked many of our monthly donors to reconfirm their card details. Not everyone has done so, which means we have lost 20% of our regular donors, or about £1,000 in monthly income. This has a massive impact on our organisation, and the support we can provide to the community. Unlike grants, pledged donations give us a stable source of income and allow us to plan for our operations long-term. If you have not yet reconfirmed your details, please consider doing so! If you would rather not use Open Collective anymore, you can donate directly to our bank account instead.

This month, OMA delivered a total of 995 food parcels. This included a regular delivery to 168 households we support on a weekly basis, as well as 274 emergency parcels, as well as to families supported through our partners at Oxford Asian Women's Voice and Donnington Doorstep.

We find that every month new households, who have never been in touch with OMA before, are reaching out to us. On average, over the last 9 months this has been roughly 79 new households getting in touch for food support.

Have any feedback, or something you'd like us to mention next time? Drop us a line at [email protected]. 

From the 8th-14th May, OMA closed operations for a week, having made this decision to prioritise the wellbeing of our staff and volunteers, and to have time to put into essential work for the long-term sustainability and health of the organisation.
  

With four out of six members of the staff team having joined the team since February, it was also an important opportunity for them to spend time together, in person, to build relationships and get to know each other outside of the rush of day-to-day operations.
  

The week included a morning spent with Shazeaa, a member of OMA's oversight board, to discuss longer-term organisational strategy, a team-building afternoon visiting some very friendly alpacas, and a day spent at the hall with volunteers to re-organise and implement new systems at the hall. 

 

 In March, April and June, we distributed additional gift parcels, as well as Halal meat, to households observing Ramadan and celebrating both Eid al-Fitr (in April) and Eid al-Adha (this week!). We were hugely grateful for the support from our friends at Help the World Oxford who came to pack parcels, and raised an incredible £187 in just a few days for Eid al-Adha.

We’ve included some feedback from people who received a parcel during this period:

“I was really grateful for the oil for cooking, we fry a lot of things for Ramadan, making samosas and pakoras, the chocolate just made us happy, and the card was great too”
 
 “It was amazing! A great thing to do, I wasn’t expecting that, that you would do parcels for Ramadan. It really helps ... we liked the tea, dates and nuts, we were really happy with it. You guys are doing a great job for the community and you’ve helped us massively... especially in these tough times everyone is going through.”
 
 "I just want to say thank you so much for the Eid present I have received today and my kids was so happy..."
 
 “Beautiful! It was amazing, really really nice and came in the right time for the celebration.”

You can donate via our open collective page to support us to share food, gifts and joy again with families next year during Ramadan, Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr. 

 I retired from full time teaching at the end of June 2022 and had a lot of time on my hands. I wanted to use some of that time to help other people in a direct, concrete way. My involvement with OMA runs alongside a continuing wider interest in wanting to help bring about a better, fairer world. Short-term, within the current socio-economic system, it is important to stand with different oppressed and/or marginalised people, to push back against unfairness and inequality, to struggle for small gains. This can take the form of supporting striking workers in every way we can, including standing on picket lines, or volunteering at food banks and mutual aid organisations.
 
I am happy to be involved with OMA. I work in the Hall, putting together parcels… we packers delight in finding just the very exact uncommon item that someone requested, or in adding extra suitable small treats for the children. When I was doing bike deliveries, I very much appreciated the interaction with the actual recipients of the parcels. The continuing more or less flat organisational structure and maintenance of consensus-driven approach is admirable. Of course, all the people at OMA, by definition, as volunteers, are pretty wonderful. I love the informal fashioning of consensus within the Hall among parcel packers, a practitioner-led consensus of norms (as I see it) that stands somewhat obliquely to the written rules, and is truly democratic.

Geoff often shares photos from local picket lines he visits in solidarity, which are always happily received! 

With the summer period is now well and truly upon us, and with staff and volunteers taking a break or going home for the holidays (in the case of our lovely student volunteers) we’re in need of more support at our packing hall on Cowley Road. Shifts run between 9-7 every day except Saturdays when we are currently closed.
 
We are also looking for support that will add capacity to our Comms, Fundraising, Phone-calling and Volunteer Outreach and Recruitment work. This is a great way to support OMA using your time and skills, or learning something new in a supportive team!  
  

Questions or queries? Drop us a line at [email protected]
 
Fill out the sign-up form here: https://oxfordmutualaid.org/volunteer/ 

Alongside the work of hundreds of committed volunteers, OMA would not be able to support hundreds of households every week without the financial contribution made by our supporters.
 
We know that we shouldn't have to exist, but as the crisis in the cost of living deepens, we appreciate any contribution, however big or small, that allows us to support our community through increasingly tough times. We are so thankful for your continued support.

If you have any other questions or would like more information on the work of OMA, please don’t hesitate to get in touch by reaching out to [email protected] for general enquiries or to [email protected] for finance related queries. Thank you so much for reading this update!