Hannah Noble from the Birmingham City Mission tells us about their Basics Bank.

Harvest time at Birmingham City Mission’s Resource Centre is frantic, with Harvest Festival donations coming in from around 150 Birmingham schools and churches. Tins and packets given by school children and church members boost dwindling supplies at the food store. Over the coming year, this food will be sorted into parcels and given to some 1,250 people struggling to make ends meet and feed themselves or their families.

For over 40 years Birmingham City Mission’s Resource Centre has helped meet the needs of some of the poorest people in our city. Each year it gives out 2,500 parcels of food, provides a change of clothes to around 60 people each week and delivers furniture start-up packs to around 220 people moving into their own accommodation. Homelessness, family breakdown, joblessness and addiction are ever present. Demand for help is growing. By spring the food store’s supplies will be low again and Birmingham City Mission welcomes donations throughout the year.

Thank you to all who have donated goods this Harvest. Without their help Birmingham City Mission would not be able to continue to help feed, clothe and furnish those in most need in our city.

As one Resource Centre client told us: “I’m a young father who’s going to get my daughter this week. I really find it hard because, at the end of the day, there was no help for me. If it weren’t for the City Mission, I wouldn’t have had any help.”

Birmingham City Mission’s Resource Centre is at 8-10 Washington Street, BirminghamB1 1JR.  Tel: 0121 643 4324. You can see the Resource Centre on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Tl4WfQyELA