At a time when many people are relying on foodbanks, the Church of England in Leicestershire is appealing for donations to raise money to set up free Cook and Eat Hubs.
The Bishop of Leicester and the Bishop of Loughborough have chosen to support the Together Leicester Cook and Eat project with this year’s annual Lent Appeal.
Lent is the time in the Church calendar that follows Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) and runs until Easter. Many Christians use the weeks of Lent as an opportunity for reflection, prayer and sometimes fasting, remembering the 40 days and nights that Jesus fasted which are recorded in the Bible.
The Cook and Eat project aims to help volunteers develop free cooking skills courses for people with limited access to fresh food and limited confidence to cook healthy meals.
Together Leicester (a partnership between the Diocese of Leicester and Church Urban Fund) is working with churches and other partners including the Soil Association, to develop volunteer-run hubs to provide these courses.
Siân Rigby, Development Worker for Together Leicester, said:
“Many people are relying on foodbanks and/or need ongoing debt advice support at the moment. We hope these free courses which we want to help volunteers to set up in Leicester can help people learn and gain confidence in cooking with fresh ingredients so they can eat healthily at low cost.”
The Appeal will raise money for more hubs to deliver their cooking courses and to buy ingredients for participants to complete a Cook and Eat course free of charge.
You can donate online on Virgin Money Giving and searching for The Leicester Diocesan Board of Finance or use the short link: https://tinyurl.com/Bishops-Lent-Appeal-2020 or send cheques made payable to Leicester Diocese Board of Finance (with a covering note to say it is a donation for the Bishops’ Lent Appeal 2020 and who it is from) to John Orridge, Leicester Board of Finance, St Martins House, 7 Peacock Lane, Leicester, LE1 5PZ.
This is how your money can help the 2020 Lent Appeal:
· £30 gives 1 hub ingredients for 6 participants for 1 week
· £180 gives 1 hub ingredients for 6 participants for 6 weeks (1 full Cook and Eat course)
· £50 provides 1 hob for 1 hub
· £150 provides 3 hobs for 1 hub, enabling the hub to run full courses on an ongoing basis
· £450 provides 3 sets of suitable saucepans for 3 hubs, enabling these hubs to run full courses on an ongoing basis
The Appeal links with Bishop Guli’s ‘Salt of the Earth’ Lent Pilgrimage, which will see her spending two or three days each week throughout Lent (the weeks between Pancake Day/Shrove Tuesday and Easter) in different locations across Leicestershire.
Bishop Guli will be learning about and joining in with community social action that local Christians take part in as an expression of their everyday faith, including a church which hopes to set up Leicester’s first Cook and Eat hub in coming weeks. She will also pray with and for all the local communities she visits. Various churches, schools and partner community projects will be involved.
Bishop Guli said:
“I am pleased that the Lent Appeal is tying in with our Lent Pilgrimage theme of ‘Salt of the Earth’ which draws attention and prayer to the dedicated work undertaken by volunteers from our churches as they live out their everyday faith, engage with their communities and make a difference to the lives of others around them.
“Importantly, much of this work is done in partnership with local charities, community groups, other faiths and church denominations and it is inspiring to hear of these collaborations enabling fruitful social action.”
Starting and ending at Leicester Cathedral, this will be a spiritual journey for Bishop Guli personally but she also hopes that stories shared from the Pilgrimage will inspire people and bring encouragement.
