Maddie Henson

Be Enriched

Be Enriched provides meals to families especially during school holidays.

1. 1. How are you helping to tackle child poverty in London?

   Be Enriched addresses child poverty by ensuring that children and their families have access to nutritious, affordable food, especially during the school holidays when free school meal programs are unavailable. Through initiatives like the Food Bus, which serves groceries at reduced costs, and Kids Clubs providing meals and activities, we bring stability and joy to low-income families. Already this year, the Food Bus has served: 1,300 customers! That means we’ll serve over 7000 people over the next 3 years.

   2. Tell us something you are excited about?

   We are thrilled to share our “Gifts That Give Back Christmas Appeal” campaign. This initiative will bring food, companionship, and holiday cheer to over 300 people during the festive season. Through community meals, The Food Bus Project, and special kids’ activities, we will ensure no one feels forgotten this Christmas. We are particularly excited about hosting three weekly community meals throughout December and January, spreading warmth and joy in the midst of challenging times.

   3. Share with our members something positive about your organisation’s achievement or service?

   This year alone, we’ve already served 2,265 guests and provided 6,795 nutritious meals at our community canteens, as well as saving 2,159 kg of food from landfill. Last year, Be Enriched made a remarkable impact, serving nearly 10,000 meals and preventing over 6 tonnes of food waste. This year, 800 volunteers contributed over 4,800 hours to our community projects, showcasing the power of collaboration and shared purpose.

   4. What can other network members learn from you or find out more about through you?

   Network members can learn about innovative ways to reduce food waste while addressing food insecurity and social isolation. Our Food Bus Project, which brings affordable groceries and community space to areas in need, and our Community Canteens, where volunteers create meals from surplus food, are models of sustainability and fostering community resilience. We are always eager to share insights into creating inclusive, sustainable initiatives that foster long-term connections and tangible change.

   5. What would most help you achieve your goals?

   This Christmas, 1 in 5 Families will choose between heating and eating, and 1 in 10 Pensioners are set to spend the holiday in isolation. So, we’re calling on supporters to join our Gifts That Give Back Christmas Appeal.

   The Gifts That Give Back Christmas appeal will help combat the rising levels of hunger and loneliness affecting vulnerable people in South London this holiday season.

   Be Enriched will be hosting three community meals per week from December, right through January, providing 300+ people with a safe space, food, companionship and gifts this Christmas.

   This vital crowdfunding campaign will ensure that no one spends the holiday season hungry, alone, or forgotten.

   6. Why did you join 4in10? What do you enjoy about being part of the 4in10 network?

   We joined 4in10 because of its unwavering commitment to addressing child poverty in London. Being part of this network provides invaluable opportunities to connect, collaborate, and learn from like-minded organisations. It’s inspiring to be among peers working toward a common goal, and we appreciate the platform to amplify our voice and share our impact.

   Some more information about their Christmas campaign can be found here and the link to their crowdfunder is here.

Family Fund

Family Fund deliver grants for families raising a disabled or seriously ill child or young people on a low income across the UK.

1. How are you helping to tackle child poverty in London?

Family Fund helps families across the UK who are raising disabled and seriously ill children and young people on low incomes, with grants, tailored information and support about financial issues, and benefits checks. We have grants for families with a child or young person aged up to 17, and for families with a young person living at home aged 18 to 24. Find out about our grants and services on our website. 

1. Tell us something you are excited about?

Right now we’re really excited about the growth of our information and support services. We’ve just launched our new Discover more support tool on our website. The tool is a searchable online database full of over 145 organisations who can support families raising disabled and seriously ill children on a low income. We are also running more free managing finances workshops online, and we’re exploring partnerships to deliver more free online support such as our iPad accessibility workshops with Guide Dogs. To keep up to date, find us on Facebook @familyfund

1. Share with our members something positive about your organisation’s achievement or service?

We get lovely feedback about our online workshops.

“Education isn’t a one-size-fits-all, and we’ve found it hard to find activities that work with Joshua’s dyslexia. It feels like everything is either too academic or centred around sports. The workshop allowed Joshua to learn a new skill, use his creativity and have fun. It was perfectly catered to his interests, and as his parents, it was a huge relief for us to find something that he’d enjoy, that didn’t cost a penny.” Helen, mum of Joshua who attended our creative workshops over the summer holidays. 

“I learnt a lot of new things, and the information provided was straightforward. I was taught how to use an online benefits calculator, where you input your details, and it tells you which benefits you’re entitled to. As a result, I discovered I was missing out on the Child Tax Credit element of my benefits. It’s through the Family Fund workshop that I realised that I’m entitled to more money.” Hilda, mum of Kalani, who attended our Checking your benefits online workshop. 

1. What can other network members learn from you or find out more about through you?

We always want to talk to organisations that support families on low incomes who are raising disabled or seriously ill children or young people. As a UK-wide pan-disability organisation working in all the nations of the UK we’re really well connected, involved in partnerships and coalitions working for change and representing families’ issues at a high level. So we can be a great networking resource for smaller, or regional and local-focussed organisations. We’ve been going 50 years, and we’re very careful in our partnership work, so families really trust the information we share with them.

1. What would most help you achieve your goals?

Apart from more funding to be able to provide more grants, or better still an end to poverty and inequality, what would help us most would be being in touch with regional and local organisations so we can reach the families you work with.

1. Why did you join 4in10? What do you enjoy about being part of the 4in10 network?

It’s great to be part of a network of organisations working in really practical ways to tackle the injustice of poverty that families in London face. It’s great to be part of the movement to make a difference.

If you would like to find out more about Family Fund please visit their website.

Acts 435

Acts 435 is an online national charity that connects those that want to help with those that have a need, by resourcing local churches and charities throughout the UK to meet the specific needs of their community.

How are you helping to tackle child poverty in London?

Acts 435 has 116 partners within Greater London, and whilst all of them are undertaking different work, many of these churches and organisations will be utilising Acts 435 to meet the needs of children and their families. One of those partners is Lewisham Foodbank who continually support individuals, families and their children. One recent request was for Annette* who now has legal guardianship of her two grandchildren, and needed to purchase clothing for them. On receiving the money towards the clothing, Annette said, “Can you please extend my gratitude to the people who have helped me to be able to purchase school clothing, and clothing in general, for my two grandchildren. I am overwhelmed with their generosity, which has come at a time when I am most in need of assistance. Again, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.”

Annette also told the local Acts 435 Advocate that, whilst friends and family have passed on some useful second-hand items, it meant so much to two teenage girls to be able to help choose some new clothes, and help to give them dignity in their time of need.

Tell us something you are excited about?

As a charity we’re continually excited about the fact that 100% of the requests that get posted onto our website by our partners are all met quickly, in comparison to a lot of other application processes. As we rely on individual donors going onto our website to give towards the needs, the amount of time for a request to be crowdfunded fluctuates, but generally all requests are met within a maximum of two weeks.  Also, because of this funding model, we can also offer our resource to churches/charities for FREE!

Share with our members something positive about your organisation’s achievement or service?

Acts 435 was founded 14 years ago, and since then we have been able to resource over 700 churches and organisations to meet the specific needs of individuals. During that time we have helped over 52,000 individuals with over £6,000,000, which all goes directly to meet their need. We can also guarantee that 100% of every donation is given to the recipient, as all our charity’s costs are covered by GIft Aid reclaimed on applicable donations.

What can other network members learn from you or find out more about through you?

Our vision is to meet the needs of as many people as possible, all over the UK. However, we’re very aware that many cities, like London, have a huge amount of deprivation. We would love to resource more churches and charities in London with Acts 435 to be able to directly help their communities and those that they may already be supporting through our work. It would be fantastic if we could let as many churches/charities know about us as possible. If you’re not already partnered with us, you may like to attend one of our online coffee mornings to find out more: https://guestlist.co/u/acts435

What would most help you achieve your goals?

As we’re a small charity, with only four paid staff members, we don’t have a fundraising budget and can’t attend all the large events and conferences that many other charities can. Therefore, people spreading the word, and talking about our work, is the most effective way for new churches and charities to hear about us. We would love to equip more people with the knowledge about our work, so that they can then let other churches/charities know about the fantastic resource through Acts 435.

Why did you join 4in10? What do you enjoy about being part of the 4in10 network?

We are quite new to the 4in10 network, and have really appreciated the support from the team. We have also enjoyed sharing our work at  a recent online meeting. We joined because we know that there must be many more churches and charities who are seeking to alleviate child poverty within London, and we want to resource them to meet the needs that they are seeing in their areas of Greater London.

If you would like to find out more about Acts 435 and how your church or organisation could get involved, please visit: acts435.org.uk/partner