Being ‘Church’ to people in need

by Bird Lovegod

As I start to write this my phone beeps: it’s someone wanting a food parcel delivered.

I started EthicalMuch.com as a ‘good news’ website in 2019, and in 2020 pivoted it into a system for buying and delivering the best food parcels in Sheffield. I go to Aldi and buy a week’s worth of fresh shopping, usually around £25-worth, and deliver it to people in poverty. All they need to do is ask. No admin, no forms, just ask and you shall receive.

Sometimes I also buy them utility top-ups, bedding, heaters, art materials, ovens: whatever else they need. Supporters of EthicalMuch sometimes make donations – books, a mobile phone, a laptop – and I pass them to the people in need. We’ve done about 500.

And sometimes I think to myself, “Why isn’t ‘The Church’ doing this?”

There are literally towers of people in poverty. Towers of them. People in food poverty, utility poverty, household poverty, spiritual poverty, you can see them from across the city, there’s no hiding it. There’s towers of them.

Here’s how easy it is to reach them;

• Step 1. Print hundreds of simple postcards offering support, including food parcels, and post them through doors. Include a text or phone number; there’s no point putting an email or website as many don’t use the internet.

• Step 2. Answer the calls and texts, ask people about their situation. Take an address.

• Step 3. Go to Aldi and buy them food. Add some flowers to show you care.

• Step 4. Deliver it, and when doing so, talk to them, ask them about their situation, identify other needs. Be a friend.

What would it be like if all the churches in Sheffield or across the UK served the poor in this way?

Are we really caring for ‘the least of these’ and ‘loving our neighbour’? Jesus told us to go out, into the streets, into the communities, to reach out to people in need. 

You can be church in your community right now. 

And if you’d like to support EthicalMuch, contact me on 07535 670 581 or email hello@ethicalmuch.com.