Boxes of Hope

BoH
HOPE - Let Your unfailing love surround us Lord , for our Hope is in You alone. Psalm 33:22

Back in June 2020, we started the Boxes of Hope project with a startup of £200 from the national charity, Transforming Lives for Good. The project was to deliver food parcels to families that were struggling due to the coronavirus crisis. Since that time, we have been working with many agencies across the town. We are now taking referrals from all agencies and any individual that is struggling to feed themselves or their families due to changes that have occurred due to COVID 19.These may be changes to financial circumstances, such as being furloughed, redundancies, reduction in working hours, waiting for benefits, children being at home more often, relationship breakdowns, illnesses, shielding etc.

In the first 8 months the team packed and delivered a total of 1,242 Boxes of Hope to residents of Swindon feeding in total, 1,718 adults and 2,567 children.

We have been privileged to build strong relationships with other professionals that we have been working with and have got to know some of the families that we have been helping. We are working closely with professionals within the borough and are delivering to a number of families on a regular basis.

Delivering the Boxes of Hope is about more than meeting just a physical need. The boxes also include age appropriate activities for the children, toiletries for the family as well as some exciting treats. We also include information about our current services and some adults and/or children’s leaflets giving information about the Christian faith.

Over the last few months the team have been really encouraged as we have had a number of requests for prayer and are also aware that a number of people that have received the bags have joined our Zoom services.

Many other people from around the town have visited the project (including the Mayor of Swindon) many of whom have donated either food items or money towards the Boxes of Hope. We have also applied for and benefited from a number of grants including Wiltshire and Swindon Community Foundation, Tescos, Asda and money from the DEFRA budget.

Thank you to all of you who have helped in any way, be that in donations of food, money, time or prayer. We would appreciate all of your ongoing support.

As a team, we have been overwhelmed by seeing God work in so many ways and are excited to find out what God has in store for Boxes of Hope next.

If you are you finding things difficult at moment? Is it hard trying to make ends meet? Is it a struggle to feed yourself and your children? If so we can help you with a box of hope. A box includes lots of food and fun activities for children of all ages.