SOFEA’s Commitment to Supply Food to Those in Need

SOFEA is an Oxfordshire based charity distributing hundreds of tonnes of good quality surplus food to the vulnerable and disadvantaged in our communities each year.

Our amazing team of staff, volunteers and trainees come from a broad range of backgrounds, many having faced barriers to employment themselves, to do the work which enables us to provide food to other organisations who feed 10,000 people each week.

Through our Community Larder we provide a weekly grocery supply to 700 individuals and families, feeding u to 2000 people,  in Oxfordshire, as part of a membership which also provides additional support and discounts on things like utility bills.

“The majority of our members are families, many of whom are on a low income, and not eligible for support through other means” the membership helps those to top up their weekly food, as they have very little disposable income, which means their children usually end up with processed, unhealthy food.  We note that this may be a link between children who eat poorly, especially breakfasts, which then adds to poor concentration and cognitive skills at school and an increase to childhood obesity, similarly, we have some elder members, who simply cannot afford some food stock due to their pension”

As the impact of Coronavirus becomes more widespread more people will need this service. The people who will be hit the hardest are the more vulnerable in our communities, those on zero hour contracts, not eligible for SSP, unable to access regular food supplies.

Therefore SOFEA has developed a plan to:

• Provide food boxes to our Community Larder members in 9 locations across Oxfordshire at no charge
• Encourage people who are not currently members to sign up and access these larders at no charge
• Work with other organisations to open more larders in locations where there are large groups of vulnerable people
• Do this with due regard to safe and hygienic practice, taking current advice into account

This is a vital ‘emergency service’ for local communities because of the unique role it plays.

Why there’s a problem

We have the food to be able to supply many more members for many weeks, but we need more resources to be able to do so.

If you can help in one or mor eof the following ways, please call us on 01235510774 or email richard@sofea.uk.com

1.Do work

If you are able bodied, healthy, symptom free and able to do so we need volunteers to work in our warehouse or drive food parcels to communities.

If you can commit half a day or more to do so, please let us know

2. Find someone to do work

Please share this message with your networks, so that we can find as many people as we can to help

3. Give us some cash to buy someone to do work

We need to keep our warehouse open longer, our vans on the road for more hours and our staff taking on more commitments.

Our costs will increase and we will require support to cover them.

We have set up a Justgiving page, if you can help please go to this link: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/sofeacommunitylarder

These situations bring out the best in people and we appreciate your support