Our Daily Bread

The Bishop of Derby's Harvest Appeal 2024

Responding to food poverty in our local areas

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Many of our churches collect food for their local food bank and provide venues for them.

Yet more run breakfast clubs, lunch clubs, community pantries, shops and other food-poverty projects.

These services are needed because too many people have to make stark choices and face going hungry.

No-one should go hungry... ever.

47% of all households experiencing food insecurity include children under the age of 16.

Source: Trussell Trust, June 2023

This year, please join Bishop Libby in giving generously to projects across Derby and Derbyshire that support those facing food poverty.

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In January 2024, 15% of UK households were living in food insecurity, equivalent to approximately eight million adults and three million children.

Source: The Food Foundation

Preparing kids' breakfasts in Creswell

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The impact of the Covid pandemic and cost-of-living crisis, combined with common, challenging life experiences such as bereavement, illness, unemployment and family breakdown, has seen an increasing reliance on food banks.

Many people who never would have expected to need such help now face food poverty and have turned to organisations such as food banks for the first time.

The wider state of the economy has left many households still struggling to pay for basic necessities.

Difficult choices are having to be made in households: whether to pay bills or buy food, parents and carers going without food themselves to ensure their children have enough to eat.

"It is a scandal that in the 21st century, people across Derby and Derbyshire are going hungry and children don't have enough to eat. Systemic change is needed so households can be financially resilient and help themselves.

"But in the meantime, we continue to resource projects supporting those who face hunger in our own communities."
The Rt Revd Libby Lane, Bishop of Derby

Among households with children, 20% are living in food insecurity.

Source: The Food Foundation, February 2024

There are numerous food projects currently hard at work in Derby and Derbyshire, all trying to help combat the effects of food poverty.

But there's a problem...

As more households have to tighten their purse strings, giving to food banks has fallen - less money, less food, less to share - and food project centres are increasingly having to buy food to keep up with demand.

Rising fuel costs are also making it much more expensive for food projects to deliver supplies to those most in need.

So, projects are making urgent appeals for support after seeing a huge increase in the number of people asking for help.

For example, according to Derby Food 4 Thought Alliance it has seen a large rise in the number of people struggling with food poverty, and that an average of 50% of calls it receives are from new users.

Food projects:

a vital source of local support for the hungry

Global and national factors feel beyond our control. It will take time to change policies and systems to give people better life chances. We can feel helpless.

But here's something we can all do.

By donating to the Bishop of Derby's Harvest Appeal, Our Daily Bread, you can help local food projects provide a vital lifeline for those households who soon may be wondering where the next meal is coming from.

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"We just don’t have the funds to keep spending £8,000 to £10,000 a month on food, including fresh fruit and veg that are so vital to help balance the nutrition of a food package."
Derby Food 4 Thought Alliance

Money given to the Bishop of Derby’s Harvest Appeal will be distributed amongst local food project operators across the whole county, including:

East Derbyshire

Trussell Trust food banks at:

South Normanton, Chesterfield Loundsley Green, Long Eaton and Sawley, Clay Cross.

Bolsover Freedom Community Food Bank

Chesterfield – Gussie’s Kitchen

Creswell Breakfast Club

Kirk Hallam – Every One Eats.

Derbyshire Peak and Dales

Glossopdale Food Bank

High Peak Food Bank and Zink, Buxton.

Jigsaw Food Bank, Matlock,

Belper Food and Community Hub

Ossie's Kitchen, Ashbourne.

Derby City and South Derbyshire

The Padley Centre – Padley Pantry,

Nourish - Food for those in need, including hot meals for those living in Derby who don’t have access to cooking facilities as they are in temporary accommodation

Derby Food 4 Thought Alliance

Swadlincote – South Derbyshire CVS Food Bank.

On launching the appeal, Bishop Libby said:

In these uncertain times, food banks and food projects across Derby and Derbyshire are doing a fantastic job of providing sustenance to those facing immediate need, and we thank God for them.

This year, our harvest appeal supports them in maintaining their good work as we continue to fight the injustice that leads to hunger.

It is a scandal that in the 21st century, people across Derby and Derbyshire are going hungry and children don't have enough to eat. Systemic change is needed so households can be financially resilient and help themselves.

But in the meantime, we continue to resource projects supporting those who face hunger in our own communities.

As we pray every day "give us today, our daily bread", I hope that many people will be generous in supporting local organisations who are working so hard to try to prevent people from going hungry.

Give us this day...

As followers of Christ we pray every day our Lord’s prayer:

Give us this day our daily bread.

As we pray this, we are reminded of our connection both to God and to one another. The Lord's Prayer commits us to sharing God’s gifts, especially food, so that nobody goes hungry – and to sharing the good news of God’s love in Jesus, the ‘Bread of Life’.

Supporting the various local foodbanks, kitchens, and food hubs across the length and breadth of our diocese, we want to live out The Lord’s Prayer, responding to real need, expressing our solidarity together and, at a time of Harvest Festival, our deep gratitude to God.

As well as The Lord's Prayer, please pray for an end to hunger.

Ask for God’s blessing and help for farmers and producers everywhere.

Pray too that those who are suffering the greatest impact of rising food prices will receive the support they need.

A simple grace you can use before your own meals

Thank you, Lord, for this food we are about to share, a sign of your goodness to us. Bless those who harvested it and those who prepared it.

We pray for those who go without food today.

May our meal nourish our bodies and strengthen the bonds that unite us in love.

Amen

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