The Story of The Incredible Food Parcel

In June 2019, MERCY UK met with Southern Women’s Aid Network (SWAN), a community organisation based in South London, that provides aid in the UK and war torn/ poverty stricken areas around the world. They have been running a Food bank in South London Islamic Centre for the past three years, fully funded by members of the community.

We learnt that over 1,000 occupants with disadvantaged backgrounds are being temporarily placed in centres around the UK. Families are cramped into one room, some without the means to cook meals or have any sense of a normalised household.

They stay in their rooms, waiting to be told when they have a new home to move into. Until then, they’re on autopilot, functioning just to get through the day, full of anxiety of the unknown. Due to their past experiences, (abusive households, uninhabitable living conditions), many suffer from illnesses and mental health.

During our initial visit, we met a lovely 7 year old who shared her idea of a food pack. “It’s called The Incredible Food Parcel”, she said as she gave us her drawing of it. 

With winter around the corner and most of them financially unable to provide nutritious meals for themselves or their families, their health and mental wellbeing becomes more at risk with the colder months of shorter days and longer nights.

Working with SWAN, MERCY UK is reaching out to help a community of vulnerable women and families at a centre in South London for the next six months, by providing a monthly nutritious food parcel to each family and conducting bi-monthly talks on mental wellbeing and nutrition.

Our two reasons for doing this are two fold:

1. to give them a safe space to interact, and a reason to socialise during these informal talks.
2. to provide nutritious food to supplement their diet to help decrease their deficiencies that could lead to further ailments.

During our planning stage, we consulted a nutritionist on items  to include for the food parcels, such as lentils, beans, fish, and vitamins, bearing in mind that these needed to have a long shelf life and be easily opened.

We also prepared hygiene packs with basic toiletries for each person, to be given out during our Winter Wellness Pilot Project on Sunday, 17^th November.

On 17^th November, we kick-started our Winter Wellness pilot project, a collaboration between MERCY UK and Southern Women’s Aid Network (SWAN), at a centre in South London for temporarily displaced people.

Five people from MERCY UK went to South London: Haliza Hashim-Doyle, Dr Zehan, two volunteers, Aizat and Jayne, and myself. The agenda for the day was a talk on mental wellbeing by Dr Zehan, followed by refreshments, the distribution of The Incredible Food Parcel and hygiene packs.

Two ladies from Southern Women’s Aid Network (SWAN) were already at the centre to set up their tea and refreshments for the talk, when we arrived. There were about 15 occupants attending, with a few more trickling in as Dr Zehan started her session on the topic of mental wellbeing.

As “mental health” was a broad subject, Dr Zehan broke down her talk into five factors that covered mental wellbeing, namely: 

1. Socialising –  creating a community with each other.
2. Health – eating better.
3. Spiritual – taking moments to breathe.
4. Communicating – talking to each other.
5. Emotional wellbeing – being mindful of how they feel.

She told the group that practicing mindfulness was important. This was met with half of them (mainly the ones with children) expressing negativity, saying it was difficult to practice mindfulness, as was no “community” and no safe space outdoors for their children to play.

Things became a little heated when a few other occupants raised their voices saying that they should be grateful they had a roof over their heads. Dr Zehan quickly diffused the situation by helping them see that those voicing their concerns were parents and that it was good to be able to speak their frustrations.

A few occupants with jobs shared that working was the only thing that kept them sane. It gave them a change of scenery and kept them motivated, plus by earning some money, they felt a sense of achievement.

Dr. Zehan ended the session by reiterating the five factors contributing to mental wellness. She also reminded them that sharing and pausing to “breathe” and taking a walk outside for change of scenery would help their mental wellbeing.

As a pilot project, we thought it had a positive outcome: the residents felt they were given a space to share their feelings and concerns. They said these small talks within groups helped, as they didn’t feel so alone once they found out other people shared the same problems. Before the talk they felt they weren’t supported in their circumstances.

Each occupant felt special receiving their own nutritious food parcel, with one of them saying it gave her some dignity to personally receive a food parcel.

MERCY UK’s aim is to be able to hold more of these sessions and provide nutritious food parcels to help temporary housing residents. We are working to expand our helping hands around London.