The idea
We need to move our office urgently. We've been offered an attic space in St Mathew's Church, Wandsworth Bridge Road, so that we can co-locate our office with our Fulham Foodbank Centre . This office will give us room to run our projects helping local people in crisis. We will need to update electrics and add flooring, windows, a staircase, IT and wifi and more. A new office will allow this award winning charity the opportunity to continue to provide emergency food to local people in crisis (over 10,000 people in 2017/18), as well as manage our cooking and budgeting courses, holiday clubs, and advice projects - all in an effort to: raise awareness of hidden hunger; provide solutions to hunger; and campaign to change policies that contribute to hunger and poverty.
What we'll deliver
- install set of bespoke stairs to access office
- install electrics for office equipment including phones/wifi
- flooring and carpet tiles
- 4 windows (currently an attic)
- Plasterboard, skim and paint office
Why it's a great idea
This project is a great idea as the Hammersmith & Fulham foodbank needs a new space to run our office and Fulham Foodbank Centre (our client-facing service where emergency food parcels are given in a cafe-style setting). St Matthew's Church has a large, bright and welcoming area where our clients can be welcomed and served by foodbank volunteers. Small rooms are available where clients can talk privately with our advice partners (Citizen's Advice and the Law Centre). We will be able to run our holiday clubs, training and other client facing activities from St Matthew's. The Hammersmith & Fulham foodbank distributed the equivalent of over 102,000 meals to local people who would otherwise go hungry; our holiday clubs provided 800 meals to local children and their parent/carer this summer; our projects help reduce social isolation by helping people feel welcome and listened to. In Fulham, we provide breakfast on Tuesday mornings and a soup/sandwich lunch on Friday afternoons.
Steps to get it done
- Main builder starts on site
- Bespoke stairs are in place
- Office decorated and ready for use
If giving exceeds our project costs, we will spend any extra funds on building an outdoor storage area where equipment used in our Foodbank Centre 'Cafe' be stored at weekends, when the church is in use. Things to be stored include folding cafe tables and chairs, dividing screens, food, signposting information, and kitchen equipment.
We anticipate further installation costs for a new doorbell and IT equipment upgrade which are uncosted as yet, but could be also funded by donations over and beyond our initial ask.
