Mid-October 2021 Fifteen Cubs and Scouts from 17th Forest Hill spent 4 hours washing cars and vans to raise money. We had a lot of fun and it wasn’t just the rain that made us wet! There were many happy customers and we raised money to go towards Wintercamp for Scouts and climbing for Cubs.
The young people, however, decided that they should not keep all the money raised for themselves so they spent £50 buying food items required by the Lewisham Foodbank.
On 9th November some of the Cubs and Scouts were able to deliver the food to the Hope Centre on Malham Road SE23 and meet some of the staff.
The children asked the staff questions about the service – they found out that it has been running in Lewisham for 10 years and that over 130 families use the food bank each week with demand increasing since the start of the pandemic.
The center used to open 4hrs a week but is currently open every day. One scout asked what the best donation had been which was that when lockdown first occurred one shop in Lewisham donated all of its food stock so it would not waste this included interesting items such as chili oil! If there is money donated the staff use it to buy fresh food and also top up on any items low in stock.
The young people were saddened that so many people have to use food banks to feed their families and realize how fortunate they are especially as they have family and friends nearby who could help whereas many people in our borough do not so are alone and struggling. They decided that they wanted to help the foodbank in the future as well and we are discussing as a group how we can do this.