Cardinal Vincent Nichols hosted the first of a series of roundtables on food poverty on 2 May 2014 with representatives from Caritas Westminster, parishes and schools to discern the problem of food poverty at the local level and to coordinate the Church's response. The roundtable aims to bring together representatives from parishes and schools across London and Hertfordshire who have already established local initiatives to deal with food poverty together with Caritas Westminster, the St Vincent de Paul Society and Magic Breakfast, to help coordinate the effort and provide additional support at grassroots level.
Among the projects represented were four foodbanks established in different parts of the Diocese, Borehamwood, East Finchley, Bow and St Albans and District, in collaboration with religious and secular partners, as well as initiatives in schools to tackle food poverty among pupils and their families.
Cardinal Vincent praised these local groups for reaching out to the most vulnerable in their communities. He reassured all participants of his commitment to support their grassroots work by providing central coordination through Caritas Westminster, the organisation which he founded in May 2012 to identify and address issues of poverty and social exclusion, to create links with other parishes, schools, charities and individuals, and to build on their work.
The data and findings gathered from the participants will also form the basis of the submission from Westminster Diocese to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Hunger and Food Poverty.
