Marlborough Tower & Town: The Magazine Of Marlborough's Community And Churches

Tower and Town, October 2024

Love Marlborough Kids Meals

Since we first launched in 2020, our charity has continued to support families who find themselves struggling in the Marlborough area.

We are part of the charity, Love Marlborough and are an active part of Marlborough Area Poverty Action Group. We cover Marlborough and villages within an 8 mile radius.

We provide a hot, healthy family meal, every Friday delivered to the door in (recyclable) take-away packaging. This is usually a roast chicken with potatoes and mixed vegetables. We offer all our families a slow cooker to help with their cooking costs. We also provide additional groceries from time to time, often during school holidays.

The cost of living pressures have impacted many members of our local community. This includes families with working parents, challenging health issues or other personal circumstances, or sudden and unexpected changes making things difficult.

Stories we have heard recently include:

A single-parent who had a sudden and unexpected health difficulty, which meant they were physically unable to cook for their family (or work and do many of their usual parenting activities).
A couple of parents who have been completing nurse training, working long hours on placement and studying, with the associated low income. Not having to plan and make one meal a week was really helpful!
Families with a parent experiencing a mental health crisis.
Families with a child who has additional needs.
Families recovering from a domestic violence situation.
Ukrainian families recovering from traumatic experiences, who are setting up home and work within our community.
A parent who found purchasing the extra fuel to visit their terminally-ill mother too much for their tight weekly budget.

Kids Meals is currently supporting 44 families who have children under the age of 18 years. Most families self-refer, others come through schools, children's centres, GP or social services. Families tend to remain with us long term but occasionally a parent will let us know that their circumstances have changed for the better and they no longer need our support.

One of our greatest assets continues to be our volunteer team, whose members come from different parts of our local community. We cook on Friday afternoons, at SBC, a professional kitchen generously provided free of charge by Kymee Cleasby.

We have a rota of cooks and kitchen assistants, cooking and packaging our meals every Friday afternoon. Our team of delivery volunteers operate on a rota, covering 7 delivery routes. In addition, there are coordinators for liaising with families, onboarding volunteers, IT support and overall management of the project.

We continue to be supported financially by St Mary's Church. We have also received generous grants and funds from the Wiltshire Community Fund, Marlborough Town Council, local businesses and supermarkets, commercial companies linked to some of our volunteers and from individuals. Kids Meals is also one of the Mayor's charities this year. However, we need to continually fundraise to remain sustainable.

How you might help:

Every donation is received with thanks. Every penny will be used to feed families who are struggling.

We often need extra help in the kitchen Friday afternoons, between 3-5pm and for deliveries between 4.15-5pm.

For more information, contact: deliveries@lovemarlboroughkidsmeals.org

Deprivation map of Marlborough supplied by Wiltshire Council

Catherine Williams

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