Reaching Out Project

Reaching Out Project

Newsletter 3 : June 2023

Project headlines 

• Thanks so much for your continued generous support by way of money and food. 

• • By the end of March, your kind donations came to some £5,000. Thirty of you give by Standing Orders and supporting us this way                     assures us of a regular and reliable income. 

• • We had the fantastic boost of Lottery funding worth almost £10,000 (Awards for All) 

• • Despite a disappointing initial uptake, we’ve expanded greatly in recent months. 

• • Thanks to new connections with additional schools, we now support some 120 people in need. 

• • We are working at full capacity now - but the need for our help is still great with new referrals coming in every month. 

• • Please keep up your support and encouragement! Our latest retiring collection is this weekend. 

• Last month’s Pulpit address by Christopher Llewellyn Jones (Steering Group Chair), 

When I spoke to you last year, I said we would account to you for what we are doing. 

Firstly, I would like to say a big thank you for all your support, with donations both of food and money, and your prayers. And a big thank you to our volunteers. This is your project, and we need all your support. 

I say, candidly, it has not been easy. In fact, it has been very hard work. I would like to say a big thank you to all on the Steering Committee for their contributions to that work. One of the surprising features has been the reluctance of people who need help to actually admit that fact but, when they do, many just burst into tears with gratitude and that makes all the hard work very rewarding. 

As you know, we have received some funding from the Lottery. With that and with your financial donations, we now have a firm financial basis to help people in need. Sadly, that need remains very much present. It does not need me to tell you how the price of basics like food, gas and electricity have rocketed. Even though we have this firm financial basis, that is eroded weekly as we provide food parcels, and so it needs to be topped up constantly. 

So, what have we done? 

We began with Gabalfa Primary school last year. We gave weekly food parcels, plus Christmas and Easter hampers, to some 6 or 7 families (these are not always the same families, because some get back on their feet and can drop out of the scheme while newcomers join). We also had two local families referred by St. Vincent’s and the SVP. 

Through a parishioner (Bethan), having a role in Pastoral Administration at Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf, we began providing weekly food parcels to some 6 families there and that number has already grown to 9. Through another parishioner (Katie) we were approached by St David’s Catholic 6th Form College. Our approach there has been different. With the assistance of the Vice Principal, Ruth Jones, and her Secretary, Claire, we have set up a Food Pantry from which students can obtain food. I confess that from my relatively comfortable life style, it shook me to hear of students struggling to complete their education, some living alone in hostels or bedsits, others in very poor homes, and some working of an evening trying to earn some money for themselves or their families but in truth unable to feed or clothe themselves or their families properly. From a relatively small cupboard at the beginning, we have expanded rapidly into a large Pantry in the Vice Principal’s office and, at our last count, some 40 students were accessing this for breakfasts and evening meals, either for themselves, or for both themselves and their families. 

How do we do this? 

For the families from Gabalfa Primary or living locally, our volunteers pack weekly food parcels at the St Vincent’s Centre in Ely and these are delivered by other volunteers to people’s homes. The food parcels for families at Ysgol Glantaf are also packed at St Vincent’s but then delivered to the school. During school holidays when St. Vincent’s does not operate, we issue food vouchers. Many of you have been bringing weekly donations of food to the churches. We have decided that all these donations will go directly to St David’s College to stock their Food Pantry. At times, it may be necessary for us to make purchases to top up this stock. During holiday periods, the college will still give students access to our food in the Pantry. 

How can you help? 

This is your project - and we need help from all of you because, without that help, this project will fail. 

1. There are boxes at the back of both churches each Sunday for food donations. You have been very generous and I beg of you to continue that generosity so that we can stock the St. David’s College Pantry because, as you will appreciate from what I have just said, the need is large. If you can afford it, please add one or two items, or even more, of - for example - tins, pasta and sauces, cereals, long life milk dried food (though not fresh food or dairy products) to your shop and bring them to the church on Sunday. There is a list of appropriate items on the board. 

2. To be blunt we do need money. The cost to us now is £12 per family per week which we pay to St. Vincent’s, but their costs are rising as well, so soon we will have to pay more. We intend to resume retiring collections in June and plan to have about 8 of these through the year. Alternatively, if you would like to make a donation monthly by standing order( and if you are a taxpayer to gift aid that donation), there are forms available. I love gift aid because, with no effort on your part, the Government gives us an extra 25 pence for every pound you donate and it is not very often that one gets a gift from Government. 

3. We need a few more volunteers: 

(1) For Food Hygiene reasons, we have to check the dates on all food donations after Mass. If you feel able to help, please do come and speak to us after Mass. It takes about 15 – 20 minutes depending on numbers. 

(2) We also need a few more packers and deliverers just to share the load. Packing is done at St. Vincent’s on a Monday morning between about 9.15 and 11.30 followed by a very sociable cup of coffee or tea. The parcels are then collected by the deliverers at about 12.00. The fact is the more we have then the less frequently you’ll actually have to do it. We also need one or two persons who would be prepared to deliver weekly to St. David’s College on a Monday morning. It simply means picking up the food parcels from St. Teilo’s and taking them to the College. Again, speak with us if you feel able to volunteer. 

Thank you for listening to me. Please continue to remember us and our project in your prayers. 

Ideas for family fun while fundraising It would be lovely to have wider support boosting what comes in from Mass-goers and the events which the schools in our network have planned. Perhaps a friend of neighbour, or someone in your family or workplace, might like to try a simple activity which will be fun and raise awareness of our work? A great opportunity coming up soon will be the Cardiff half-marathon or one of the shorter community funruns which come up from time to time. We will produce sponsor forms on request and, if there is sufficient interest, start a project page on the Just Giving or similar websites. Here are other ideas suggested by the Trussell Trust which runs many foodbanks across the UK. 

Five easy ones would be: 

• Sacrificing three luxury items from your weekly shop or giving up your weekly coffee/pint and donating what you’d have spent. 

• Doing a 24 hour fast or giving up lunch for a week and donating what you save. 

• Dressing up as a superhero/someone famous/ or something silly like a chicken for a day and getting people to sponsor you. 

• Crazy racing - anything from snails or babies to rubber ducks. People could pay £1 to enter or place a bet. Give a prize to the winner. 

• Getting sponsored – maybe by fasting from Facebook, climbing the Wenallt, keeping a silence, dyeing your hair a vibrant new colour ,or helping with the chores for a week. Other ideas for summer activities were: 

• Pimm’s O’clock anyone? What better way to while away a summer’s eve than with a Pimm’s party for all your friends? Ask them to pay bar prices and you’ll earn a few quid in no time... Or if Pimm’s isn’t your thing, how about a BBQ? 

• Open garden. Have you got a blooming brilliant garden? Why not open it to the public and charge entry? You could raise even more by selling cream teas or plants too. Biblical food challenge How well do you know your Bible? Here’s a list of foods or things connected with eating, drinking or cooking. We’ve given you the first letters as further clues. Get all or most of them right then why not imagine yourself in a Cardinal’s red hat. But, if you fail completely, perhaps you should think more about moving to Craggy Island! 

A _ _ _ _ _ Ps 25 v 11. ’Like a… of gold in settings of silver’ 

B _ _ _ _ Dt 8 v 3. ‘Man does not live on b… alone’ 

C _ _ _ Hos 7 v8. ‘Ephraim is a flat c.. not turned over’ 

D _ _ _ _ Lk 12 v19. ‘Take life easy, eat, d… and be merry’ 

E _ _ Lk 11 v12. ‘for an e…, who will give him a scorpion?’ 

F _ _ Ge 3 v7. ‘so they sewed f... leaves together’ 

G _ _ _ _ _ Mt 7 v16. ‘Do people pick g… from thornbushes?’ 

H _ _ _ _ Ex 3 v8. ‘ a land flowing with milk and h…’ 

I _ _ Lk 10 v34. ‘took him to an i.. and took care of him’

 J _ _ 1Ki 17 v12 ‘of flour in a jar and a little oil in a j…’ 

K _ _ _ _ Ge 22 v10. ‘ and took the k…to slay his son’ 

L _ _ _ Is 11 v6. ‘The wolf will live with the l…’ 

M _ _ _ _ Jn 6 v49. ‘Your forefathers ate the m… in the desert’ 

N _ _ _ _ _ _ Pr.10 v21. ‘The lips of the righteous n… many’ 

O _ _ _ _ Ge 8 v11. ‘in its beak was a freshly-plucked o… leaf’ 

P _ _ _ _ _ _ Mk.6 v25. ‘head of John the Baptist on a p….’ 

Q _ _ _ _ Ex 16 v13. ‘that evening q… came and covered the camp’ 

R _ _ _ Jn 4 v35 ‘the fields. They are r… for harvest’ 

S _ _ _ Mt 5 v 13. ‘You are the s… of the earth’

 T _ _ _ _ Ps 34 v8. ‘T… and see that the Lord is good’ 

U _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ d Ex 12 v17. ‘Celebrate the feast of u… bread’ 

V _ _ _ Jn 15 v1. ‘I am the true v…’ 

W _ _ _ _ Mt 3 v 12. ‘gathering the w… into his barn’ 

eX_ _ _ _ Second book of the Old Testament (has lots of food references!) 

Y _ _ _ _ Mt 16 v6 . ‘guard against the y.. of the Pharisees’ 

ZZZZ Not gone to sleep? Then well done! 

Key project contacts Gill Kane (Project Director), Christopher Llewellyn Jones (Chair), Angela Jones (Vice chair), Madeleine Walters (Communications and Project Co-ordinator for packers & deliverers), Peter Curran (Finance) and Father John. For fundraising, Clare Gallagher, Jo Hudson and Nick Davies assist.