Jean Richards, 81, has lived in Newham, east London, most of her life and worked for the local borough for 40 years. When she fell ill she started visiting Bonny Downs Food Club in East Ham, which provides discounted rather than free food. She’s been visiting weekly ever since.
“It’s one of the best things that ever happened to me. One of my neighbours said: ‘Go round there — you’re entitled to it because you’re 80’ so I did,” Richards said. “It really helps out the pension and the money I save on this goes on the bills.”
Like many of those who use the food club, Richards has never visited a food bank — which focuses more on the emergency provision of food and typically can’t be accessed without a referral.
“I come here because it’s local and most of the people that come in here I know and they’re all very kind, very nice people,” Richards added.
Bonny Downs is supported by Feeding Britain, a charity supported by the Times and Sunday Times in this year’s Christmas Appeal, which helps run 350 food clubs serving approximately 75,000 households across the UK.
“It’s certainly a model that’s got more popular,” said Rose Bray, the deputy director of Feeding Britain
“I think feedback from members about it feeling more dignified and there being less stigma is one of the reasons that more and more community groups are either setting up new food clubs or thinking about opening a food club alongside their food bank provision,” she added.
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Data collected by Feeding Britain suggest that on average households spend £6 each time they visit one of the charity’s food clubs and take home food worth approximately £23.
That extra food has been a huge help for Alan Ovid, 60, who helps do the school run at Newham council.
“The cost of living is very expensive and I struggle a little bit to feed myself and pay for everything else,” Ovid said. “It’s a brilliant idea. It’s saved me with all the other stuff like the gas bill and the electricity bill. For £5 I can make a meal most days of the week.”
Bonny Downs originally opened as a food bank in 2013, and while it has now transitioned to a food club, it still runs an emergency food bank every Wednesday. The directors of Bonny Downs decided to make the change a year ago as a way to place the charity on a more sustainable footing after it massively expanded its service during the pandemic.
Angie Allgood, one of the founders of Bonny Downs Community Association and now co-director said: “Very sadly, we thought that this would be a service that maybe we would be slowly able to reduce but I don’t see that at this moment in time and that is a real worry. The fees that we get do make it a more sustainable project but we are constantly topping up those fees.”
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The food club caters for all ages and operates not only as a service to people in Newham but also as a social hub for the community, with many of the volunteers having once used the food club and all living within the E6 postcode.
Sir Stephen Timms, the MP for East Ham and chair of the Work and Pensions select committee first put Bonny Downs in touch with Feeding Britain. He said: “That’s what Bonny Downs has managed to foster because in communities like ours there aren’t that many places where large numbers of people come together other than places of faith.”
Ultimately Bonny Downs — and many more clubs across Newham and the UK — have created a service for those that need a helping hand but might otherwise be afraid to ask for it.
“A food club is a really lovely way of people sort of feeling connected and sustained. We can continue to work with them on whatever issues they are facing,” said Allgood. “It means we can be there much longer. There’s no end really until they are in a space where life is more sustainable again.”
Readers’ donations to Feeding Britain will be matched up to £30,000. Prezzo, the Italian restaurant chain, has agreed to match each pound donated by readers of The Times and Sunday Times up to £15,000, with a further £15,000 matched by an anonymous donor.
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To donate to The Times and Sunday Times Christmas Appeal visit thetimes.co.uk/christmasappeal or call 0151 284 2336.
