28 mins
Life on a food parcel
A Church of Scotland deacon and her husband lived on the contents of a food parcel for nearly a week to raise money and awareness for their nearby foodbank.
Craig and Angela Brydson
Angela Brydson DCS serves the rural area of Lochmaben, Lockerbie and Moffat in the south-west Presbytery of Annandale and Eskdale.
She has supported the independent Dumfries foodbank First Base for several years, and now represents the Church on its management committee.
Last summer, First Base supporters were challenged to help the charity raise £20,000 by living off a three-day food parcel.
Angela and her husband, Craig, felt that three days was not long enough to get an understanding of life on a food parcel, so decided to try to make it last for six days.
The food parcel consisted of cereal, long life milk, bread, margarine, ham, rice, instant pasta, noodles and mash; tins of baked beans, spaghetti and meatballs; cup soup, instant custard, rice pudding and strawberry whip.
Angela said: “We began the challenge on the last day of our holiday.
“We had had a feast the night before of all the goodies left in our caravan, so on Sunday morning we opened up the bag with the daily rations and the challenge began.
“The food was basic, but for me the biggest struggle was no fruit and veg.
“The parcel is deliberately high in carbohydrates to help keep folks feeling full, especially in winter months.
“As there were no biscuits I tried to be creative with some of the Weetabix-style breakfast cereal and porridge, and make flapjacks as I knew Craig was missing his sweet treats.
“My flapjacks were so hard you could have used them to build a wall! Thankfully on separate walks with our dog I was able to pick some apples and brambles.
“They tasted even better than normal.
“Unlike Craig I was never overly hungry as I don’t eat as much as him but he constantly felt hungry and had little or no energy which was really hard for him as his job is very physical.
“Craig also struggled to sleep much because he felt hungry and had a persistent headache.
“As the week went on, it was a struggle as we were repeating the same meals.
“It was great from a cleaning perspective as it was mostly hot water or microwave cooking, so very little washing up, but it meant you didn’t have a lovely cooking smell which I had never realised I would miss.”
Angela and Craig raised £820 for First Base through the challenge, as well as gaining greater awareness of the problem of food poverty.
She added: “Neither of us regret doing this challenge as it caused us to be more aware of the fact that there are many families throughout our area who can’t afford to put food on the table each night for a variety of reasons: debt, addiction, sanctioning of benefits or just not being able to budget.
“Living off a food parcel is not an easy option. It is there to help you survive, but they are only a stop-gap until folk are back on their feet.
“It really upsets me when the media portrays this as a lifestyle choice.
“It really isn’t.”
LEBANESE CHURCHES FACE REFUGEES CHALLENGE
March 15 marked the sixth year since the start of the Syrian war. Lebanon, being a small Middle Eastern country facing constant political and national unity challenges with a population of approximately 450,000 Palestinian and Iraqi refugees, has been the shelter for more than two million registered Syrian refugees since 2011. The number of Palestinian, Iraqi and Syrian refugees is estimated to be at a percentage of 32% of the Lebanese population, if not more.
Mira Neaimeh is from Lebanon. She is a member of the Orthodox Youth Movement and of the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF), and was one of the speakers of a World Council of Churches (WCC) co-sponsored side event ‘Empowering Refugee Women and Children through Education and Employment’ at the 61st session of the Commission on the Status of Women held in New York on March 13-24.
In her presentation, Neaimeh highlighted the role of faith-based communities in providing aid to the refugees.
As the present Syrian crisis is still developing and spilling into Lebanon. Over the past six years, Lebanon is now the home of more than 3,000 Syrian Christian refugee families. Local churches are working more to reach beyond their comfort zones and social boundaries to help the refugees.
Following the occupation of Lebanon by Syria for 30 years, every Lebanese family, including Neaimeh’s, has stories of their homes being destroyed, family members killed and kidnapped. Thus, the decision by a handful of Lebanese Christians, including priests, practitioners and believers to reach out to Syrian refugees in Lebanon meant being able to forget the past and go on with what faith dictates and humanity loudly utters.
“Even if you decide, on a personal level, to help, you will face some major disagreement from your surroundings, such as family, neighbors and others in the same community, regarding your decision”, said Neaimeh, sharing the example of one church where 85% of the members left because the priest decided to help the refugees.
Regardless of all the opposition, churches have decided to make their premises places of compassion for people of any faith to find help in the midst of the crisis.
“Christian refugee families have access to rented homes, sometimes with multiple families in a single home or a set of rooms. Although they are living in houses, these families lack the very basics of daily life, such as food, educational opportunities for their children and medical care”.
“Churches are helping the refugees pay their rent, and find work for the young men and adults, given that they are skilled laborers”, she said. (WCC)
This article appears in the May 2017 Issue of Life and Work
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