Miracle Meals at Christmas
River City Church Hull, a diverse and growing evangelical church based in East Hull, have been caring for the needs of those who are finding life tough since they began eight years ago. Over the last three years they have gone a step further in their bid to support those experiencing food poverty at Christmas.
As December approaches we are looking forward to providing 200 people with Christmas Dinner and all the trimmings. Out of our building, The Well (on a retail park in Hull), we run a centre for Hull Foodbank, a warm space drop-in, and mental wellbeing courses, as well as free holiday clubs and other family activities throughout the year.
We have witnessed the need around us grow due to the cost of living crisis, so we wanted to respond. In the past the church has given out food hampers before Christmas, but realised that increasingly it was the cooking of the meal, as well as the cost of the ingredients, that could make it unaffordable for many.
On December 23rd, those we meet through the various courses and drop-ins we run, will be invited to collect a free, pre-cooked, delicious, restaurant-quality Christmas Dinner and take it home with them, ready to be eaten on Christmas Day.
To help us with logistics we approached local business Foodies Events Catering, that we were connected to through our church family, to see if they could help. The owner of the business, professional chef Leslie Leak, jumped at the opportunity, and soon brought in support from other local companies, including being given the use of the catering facilities at local events venue, the Beverley Barn, to prepare the food.
We were amazed at the generosity of other local suppliers and businesses as word got around at what we were trying to do. We ended up spending none of the money we had budgeted for this effort as we had so much food donated to us.
John Flavell, leader of River City Church, explained:
“This year we are all too aware of the challenges people are facing in having a Christmas that they will remember for the right reasons. We want to bring some Christmas cheer to as many people as possible by blessing them with a free Christmas Dinner that they can re-heat quickly but that will feel like a treat.
We’ve been overwhelmed by the support offered to us by local businesses such as Foodies and Beverley Barn, it really has been a miracle that we will be able to feed so many. We hope that everyone who comes and collects a meal on the 23rd knows that they are not alone this Christmas, that God loves them, and so do we.”
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Written by Abi Flavell for the Jubilee+ blog (for more information on this story please contact abi@rivercityhull.co.uk)
