Foodbank nominated as local charity of the year and praised in the House of Commons

 

The work of the Harlow Foodbank has been praised by the Leader of the House of Commons, Sir George Young, after I highlighted the charity's achievements in the House of Commons.

The Harlow charity, which has now given food to more than 5,000 people since 2009, has been nominated for a national award.

A Parliamentary Motion highlights the work of Harlow Foodbank and welcomes the move by the Department of Work and Pensions to allow jobcentres to issue Foodbank vouchers.

The Harlow charity makes a real difference to the lives of people in Harlow, providing a lifeline to people who are going through a period of difficulty or crisis in their lives.

Sir George said:

 “I applaud the work of the Harlow food bank. I applaud the work that food banks do in constituencies throughout the country, making help available to people who, for whatever reason, have no cash at the end of the week, and I commend the work that is being done in Harlow.”

You can read the Motion HERE.

Kelloggs supports Harlow Foodbank

HARLOW Foodbank does great work and so I was delighted when breakfast cereal manufacturer Kelloggs agreed to donate products and £500 to the charity after I highlighted their great work when I had met with the company during the Conservative conference in Manchester last October.

I have volunteered at the Foodbank on a number of occasions including during my week of Social Action last September.  I want to do all I can to support the work of Harlow Foodbank and the volunteers and I hope this will make a difference.

The Science behind Community Action: Foodbank and Talking Books

At Harlow Foodbank

Harlow Foodbank

Reading at Harlow Talking Newspapers

High-Tech memory stick recording machine 

To Harlow Foodbank this morning to pack and weigh tins. Whilst I have visited Foodbank a number of times - and have actively been campaigning in Parliament to allow job centres to hand out food vouchers - until today, I was never aware of the science of Foodbank.

All food that is donated is weighed, and put carefully into packs. Each pack is carefully listed to ensure that there is a nutritional variety. That means packs will contain, exact numbers of tinned fruit, tea, pasta, beans and some tinned meat and vegetables. The organisation behind this is enormous - and meticulous. All down to the volunteers of the Michael Roberts Charitable Trust.

Later in the afternoon I went to Harlow Talking Books, upstairs at the Town Centre Library. Again the science behind the operation was astonishing: Talking newspapers is run with military precision.

In the afternoon, volunteers arrive to cut articles from newspapers into reading format. Later, the readers arrive (I was one of those), and the articles are read and recorded by computer onto a memory stick. The reading goes on for ninety minutes (taken in turn by the readers), watched over by a computer operator, introducer and concluder.

After, the memory stick is then put into a machine so it can be copied onto many other memory sticks (which all go into the one machine). These are then sent off in yellow envelopes to all the listeners at their homes.

The listeners, plug the memory sticks into a mini MP3 player which are supplied free of charge. Once the memory sticks are listened to, the listeners then send the envelopes back, already addressed, as all they have to do is to turn the card address on the envelope around.

The mechanics of all this are quite remarkable - all the more so for being done entirely by volunteers with a shoestring budget.

I really enjoyed my time as a Reader at Talking Newspapers, all the more so because I was able to see the genius of just how it all is done.

A really fulfilling day.

Food Bank Victory at last

Some good news today.  After six months of lobbying government - I received a letter today from Social Security Minister Chris Grayling, confirming that the Department of Work and Pensions will allow now local Job Centres to hand out Food Bank vouchers.  This had been stopped by the last Labour Government, and it was taking an age to get the machinery of Whitehall to mount a reverse gear.  I raised this issue a number of times in the House of Commons, and before Christmas had a meeting with Mr Grayling and other Department advisers.  To the Government's credit, they have listened and Job Centres will not be stopped from giving out food vouchers to the most needy.  This will greatly help those who are seeking work, who will not have to face the indignity of going elsewhere to look to feed themselves and their families.

by Robert Halfon - www.roberthalfon.blogspot.com

Labour stopped food vouchers for the unemployed

You might remember this posting, I wrote in January, about a visit to the remarkable Harlow Foodbank. It is hard to believe, but the last Government stopped local Job Centres from handing out Food Bank vouchers to the unemployed. The prohibition of Foodbank vouchers in JobCentre Plus offices increases the severe poverty and malnutrition in Harlow and other areas. This has hit the poorest families hardest, especially those whose benefits or incomes are delayed through no fault of their own. We must get this decision changed. For this reason I have urged the Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith to consider allowing Jobcentre Plus staff to issue Foodbank vouchers. This would mean that local families in crisis get the support they need immediately - instead of being referred to another agency - thereby delaying the process. I have also tabled a Motion in the House of Commons noting that delays in receiving benefits can cause serious problems for families on the breadline, if referral to charities such as Foodbanks is not allowed. I very much hope that the Government will amend the regulations, so that Job Centres can be part of local Foodbank schemes once again. P.S. You might be interested in the below notice from Harlow Foodbank: Harlow Foodbank has just provided food for its 1,158th client since the project opened in April 2009. The foodbank works with churches, schools and frontline care professionals to provide three days of emergency food to local people in crisis. As an increasing amount of people need emergency food, more people in the local community are stepping up to help meet the need by supporting the foodbank. All food given out by the foodbank is donated by the public, with frontline care professionals such as Harlow Welfare Rights, Citizens Advice Centre, Harlow & Broxbourne Women’s Aid and many others identifying those most in need. So far, no client referred to Harlow foodbank has been turned away empty handed. Harlow foodbank director of community services Gary Knott said: "Harlow foodbank continues to provide a valuable service to local people who find themselves in crisis, often through no fault of their own, through losing a job, being made redundant or through an unexpected sickness or bereavement in the family. "The service is rapidly growing since we opened and we now need over a tonne of donated food each month to meet the increasing demands from local people in crisis on our town." Harlow foodbank will be collecting donated food at ASDA on Saturday, June 26; Sainsbury’s on Saturday, July 31; and Tesco (Church Langley) on Friday and Saturday, August 6 and 7 (Edinburgh Way) and Friday and Saturday, September 24 and 25.

by Robert Halfon - www.roberthalfon.blogspot.com

The upside of human nature

Sometimes in this blog, I write about pretty tragic things, such as the Edlington Case and others like it, which show evil at its very worst.

But, as Charles Dickens wrote in The Tale of two Cities, in perhaps the best opening paragraph to any book ever written:

"It was the best of times and the worst of times...."

Today, in a visit to Harlow Foodbank, I certainly saw "the best of times".

In the Church Hall, by St Mary's Church in Peldon Road, I walked into Harlow Foodbank centre - a warehouse of food. Tinned meats, teabags, pasta and much more besides. I met with dedicated staff and a volunteer.

All the more remarkable was that this food had been donated by Harlow residents who, not only had given their own supplies, but had been out to specifically buy extra provisions to donate. None of the food was old or opened and all was in its original packaging.

Foodbank is an incredible concept, started by Gary Knott of the Michael Roberts Charitable Trust. It provides food support to those most in need by giving vouchers which allow the recipient to ensure that he has enough food for him and his family. The food from the St Mary's is distributed via to a series of satellite stations based at churches around Harlow.

It really is an incredible concept - an example of all that is good about human nature: The social entrepreneurs that made Foodbank happen, the volunteers who do the day-to-day implementation, and, the givers who make certain that there is enough food to go around. Social Entrepreneurship, voluntarism and generosity & faith of the human spirit. The three key components of helping the disadvantaged. Wonderful.

P.S. The Michael Roberts Charitable Trust can be found HERE.

Fron Construction to Network Rail, to Lok'n Store

Yesterday was a great Constituency Day. After meeting with Constituents, to help them solve problems of one sort or another, I began my Community visits by going to the Construction Training Partnership.

CTP is a project set up by a former Teacher, John Collyer and his family, and is essentially a social project that trains disadvantaged youngsters in building, plastering, painting and much more besides. I first visited a year ago, with Harlow Youth Offending team, and was so impressed that I told local TV, who came and filmed one Friday. Yesterday, I was there because I had asked Chris Ellison from the Anglia Housing Trust to come along. He is very interested in training schemes, and hopefully will build a relationship with CTP. It was good to see so many youngsters and adults whilst I was there, busy working hard to gain the skills they need for future work.

After CTP I went to meet with Network Rail. This is one of the many myriad organisations that is involved in the railways - its job is to manage the tracks and part of the Station infrastructure.

I wanted to discuss with them a host of subjects, particularly the high rate of suicides at Harlow Station. They told me of the work they were doing to prevent this, including building close relations with Harlow Samaritans, Police and PCSOs. It was a good meeting, and I look forward to meeting Network Rail again to discuss wider infrastructure issues.

But the highlight of my day was visiting, Lok'n Store in Edinburgh Way. You may ask why I was visiting this storage company? Well, it wasn't to store any packages, although if I did, I certainly would want to here. It was because Lok'n Store is helping the new Harlow Food Bank, by offering to store food for free.

Lok'n Store has a fantastic atmosphere. The moment you walk in, you are greeted by the larger than life General Manager, George Thomas. The company is a people business, and the staff, like Craig and Anne, whom I also met, could not be more friendly.

George believes that a business must be at the heart of the community and is determined to work with local charities. Its fantastic that Harlow Food Bank has been given a home here. I think this is a superb example of a company thinking more about profits, and doing something for those in need. Its all the more important, because Lok'n Store did this voluntarily, not through any Government diktat. I was told that they also give significant support to the British Red Cross, another important cause to support. Walking through the Storage Area, it was like viewing a hotel for storage items. Everything was spick and span and the storage areas were immaculate. A truly great company.

It was a good day, which I really enjoyed. I managed to round it off by going to see Star Trek, later in the evening with Vanda, at Harlow Cineworld. Brilliant. If I have time, I will blog post a review on it later!

Now I am off to Harlow Homeless Centre Football Match, so must rush off.....

P.S. I will put some good pictures on later.

P.P.S. The pictures are now up, a few days late. I have had a dreaded Trojan virus on my laptop and I am reliant on getting to an office computer to load the pictures on!


By Rob Halfon ~ Working hard for Harlow, Hastingwood, Nazeing, Roydon & Sheering. http//roberthalfon.blogspot.com

Judging Easter Eggs at the Maybury Centre

I had a very hard task today. Visiting the Maybury Centre, with Alistair Burt MP, and Cllr. Mike Garnett, I was given the tough job
of judging an Easter Egg competition. These weren't just any eggs, these were hand made real eggs, painted and decorated with the most beautiful patterns and faces. Many had eyes and clothes too. The eggs were made by the users of the Maybury Centre, an impressive community organisation, that provides a range of activities for those who have certain disabilities or other difficulties.

The Maybury Centre is truly a special place. There are games, food, artistry, sewing - all kinds of things to do. It is a mixture of a 'home away from home' and a Club, whose members find harmony and friendship. What makes the Centre is the staff, who are mostly volunteers and passionate and dedicated about their work. They provide services for local residents, that 'state funded social services' would find hard to fill. Part of the Michael Roberts Charitable Trust, run by Gary Knott, the Maybury Centre forms part of a number of charitable endeavours, all inspired by the Christian faith that guides the organisation. Help for Ghana, the Harlow Foodbank, London City Aid are just a few of the aspects of the MRCT.

I have always believed that the best help for the vulnerable will always come from within the community. The Maybury Centre is a living example of what is possible, when an organisation, rooted in Faith, is determined to live up to the ideals of charity, humanity and care.

Anyway, back to the Easter Egg competition. Almost an impossible choice, I had to pick one winner, and it really was an egg to behold. The winner was Clare Cooper of Old Harlow, who had made an egg that Faberge would have been proud. She is in the picture, proudly holding her winning certificate.

Rob Halfon ~ Working hard for Harlow, Hastingwood, Nazeing, Roydon & Sheering.