Oxford Mutual Aid food bank January stats:

In the last week of January Oxford Mutual Aid supplied 82 emergency food packages to 178 adults, 37 children and 19 babies. In addition they sent out 243 parcels to people who receive a weekly delivery. Those keep 473 adults, 238 children and 79 babies fed. 12 food parcels were supplied to residents of the YHA, currently supported by St. Mungo’s Oxford, and 30 packages were sent out via Syrian Sisters and Oxford Asian Women’s Voice, reaching a further 240 people.

Throughout January Oxford Mutual Aid have provided emergency support to 402 households - 2695 people. These are people who are in crisis and need support on the day. Over 1500 parcels went to people who receive regular food support.

As you can tell from these statistics, OMA may have started as a pandemic response but it has uncovered a massive underlying need and has become a crucial organisation for many people's survival.

Thank you for helping make this possible.

Oxford Mutual Aid is a grassroots network which was established, like many similar groups, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their practices are rooted in Mutual Aid principles - that only when we share and redistribute, and support each other, will everyone in our community have access to the resources they need. The food bank is a 7 days per week operation, almost entirely run my volunteers, redistributing food to people who are struggling across Oxford.

Last week OMA delivered food parcels to 670 people in 238 households, including 390 adults, 210 children and 70 babies. These are people who receive food support from the food bank every week. In addition to the regular deliveries they also provided 22 food parcels to people experiencing homelessness rehoused at the YHA Oxford, and supported approximately 30 households through their work with the Syrian Sisters and Oxford Asian Women’s Voice.

Requests for emergency help with food continue to be worryingly high. 105 Emergency food parcels were supplied to 258 people between Monday and Sunday last week.

Our regular Wednesday shift has been a little quieter for parcel packing in the last couple of weeks thanks to some reorganisation of delivery routes, so this week we were asked to finish prepping the Wednesday evening deliveries and then make a start on getting the food parcels ready for Thursday. The daytime shifts are usually a bit lower on volunteer numbers, so getting ahead by preparing the tins, bread, dried goods, fruit and vegetables the night before takes the pressure off the Thursday morning team.

Well done everyone, particularly our less experienced and new parcel-packers. There's a lot to take in for this task and you all did a great job!

Welcome to GoodGym Laura and Ruby.