About
History
Read about the history of Rainham Foodbank as explained by the founder, Pastor Aloysius Peter.
In the year 2011 I was released from my parents’ parish to start a branch of The Redeemed Christian Church of God in Rainham. As part of the preparation to start up the new parish, myself, my wife and family friends Pastor Bob & Mary Bain visited Mardyke Estate to let the residents know that a church was opening. As a result of the door to door visitation to the community we encountered real life challenges of hunger, isolation, loneliness, frustration etc.
As we prayed at the end of the evangelical outreach to appreciate God for the safety, I heard a voice saying ‘feed the people’. The voice was not strange to me, but the challenge was not knowing where to start from. I understood very clear: feeding the people means that it’s not just feeding them with the word of God, but with physical food, considering the scenario we met. I shared the burden and vision with Church leaders, but I was later led to Trussell Trust Network, and the Church King of Kings Community Centre signed the undertaking with Trussell Trust and started Rainham Foodbank.
On 17th July 2011, when the church was inaugurated, the Foodbank vision was shared and the Foodbank was also inaugurated with the church. On the 21st November 2011, the Foodbank was opened for distribution for the public. Volunteers came from different churches, friends and families. This is how we started to help people.
Reasons people turn to foodbanks and various crisis types were analysed, which highlighted glaringly the underlining issues . More Than Food projects were established to provide recovery, preventative and restorative measures. See our More than Food section for details.