Our pregnancy outreach workers find themselves doing remarkably simple things to help women get the help they need for a healthy pregnancy.
Here Lynette is loading up her car with food donated by friends, relatives and staff at Gateway. This is common because we often find women who can’t afford to buy basic food.
We’re not alone in doing this. Food Banks are becoming more common. Fare Share is a national food bank charity which has a depot in Nechells – handing out food parcels. In September the National Lottery granted £425,000 to a the Narthex group in Sparkhill
A Big Lottery award of £425,000 to the charity Narthex Sparkhill sees a commitment to opening and running a five-year funded food bank in Sparkhill. The National Lottery, through the Big Lottery Fund, has made this grant to Narthex which will enable them to expand the work they are already doing amongst some of the most needy people in the city.
Sparkhill food bank project will address the needs of the most vulnerable within the community including people placed in sudden financial crisis due to change in personal circumstances leading to financial hardship and in some case destitution or homelessness.
Like us, the Ladywood Food Bank relies on donations from the public for its work across the constituency, plus donations from Tesco’s Morrisons, Sainsbury’s Cost-Co, Asda, Aldi, Farm Foods and other businesses.
Food is fundamental and the pregnancy outreach workers provide a critical link – they know when women are short of food and make sure they get the help they need.
really great work…practical with a direct impact if only all intervention was like this…keep up the good work
The choice between eating and feeding your baby is not one that any mother should have to face in today’s society, thank god someone sees this and is trying to help. There are other organisation such as Narthex who offer food for people who need help but many people will not access these services through either lack of knowledge or shame of having to do so.
It’s a huge problem for the city and it’s something that someone in the council needs to see for their own eyes, deprivation on this scale is an embarrassment to a city like Birmingham