Hope Nottingham

One of our office volunteer's Colin has written his version of "A Hopeful Christmas" for our series 🙂

After reading this reflection I too always hoped or wished for snow on Christmas day!

Who else wishes for snow on Christmas Day?

Thank you Colin for sharing 🙂

Today's reflection has been written by the very talented Elizabeth. Elizabeth attends quite a few of our activities and also volunteers for our food club and community meal.

Created

"Lord, you created a menu of delights
with groups, clubs and meals of joy!
To love reaching the highest of heights.
Being part of you lord.

Stand tall with shoulders pushed back.
Be still to breathe and relax.
We've got this Lord, we are on track."

You can see the wonderful Elizabeth in the photo smiling knowing that she is welcome and feels safe here at Hope House.

Thank you Elizabeth!

What a lovely Christmas lunch we enjoyed at Hope House today with our whole staff team and many of our Hope volunteer friends today. Thanks to Nigel on cooking duty again and our wonderful Tilly - volunteer extraordinaire - always lending a hand as well as everyone else who pitched in (well trained and willing staff team serving and washing up might I add!) Special thanks to Beeston Fields year 6 who sang carols for us (will share more on that when we have some approved pics to share)
Ding d**g merrily on high to all 🎁🎉🎄

Today’s Advent reflection on “A hopeful Christmas” comes from Iain, our Support Manager.

Candles are something that we often see around a lot at this time of year. Images of candles on Christmas cards and Christmas decorations, Christingles, or on the Christmas dinner table…
It’s an odd thing when you stop to think about it objectively. Candles are an outdated, dirty and potentially hazardous technology. Modern technology has given us light sources that are brighter, cleaner, safer, easier to use and longer-lasting than the candle and yet there’s something about candles and candlelight that means we still use them. Turning off the LEDs on your birthday cake, romantic neon-lit meals or carols by floodlight don’t quite have the same ring! The fact is that candlelight has a special quality to it that artificial light struggles to replicate. It’s not that it’s brighter (in fact often it’s the opposite), but it is warmer, more intimate, more somehow, living. Maybe it’s the fact that candlelight highlights the contrast between light and dark better than other lighting; or perhaps it’s because the flame itself is fragile and ephemeral that makes it feel different and special.

At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Jesus as light of the world. A light so much brighter than anything else and yet one which at the same time, like a candle flame, is also intimate, warm and comforting when all around is dark. His isn’t a stark, cold, glaring light but one that invites us in, beckons us closer and warms the heart. It can light up our lives and even the world if we let it, but is also holdable and personal to each of us. So during this season of Advent, maybe we should light the odd candle and remind ourselves to be comforted by Jesus’ light, to let it into our lives and to share it with those around us.

This reflection has been written by Margaret one of our Beeston Foodbank Sorters.

Thank you for sharing your reflection with us and also for volunteering!

We love Advent! Join us at either our Beeston or Carlton hub for some reflection time. All are welcome with or without any faith. Dates and details on each poster.

It was great to welcome Councillor Kate Foale who visited our Beeston hub this week. One of the perks of working for Hope as Nigel our Founder and now Ambassador knows more than most, is having the opportunity to show off all the wonderful efforts of our volunteers and the impact our work and partnerships have in our local communities. If you’d like to know more and enjoy a tour please drop us a line at [email protected]

As we head into the Christmas period this year at Hope Nottingham we have written a series of Advent reflections from our staff, volunteers and guests to share with you. The theme is "A Hopeful Christmas".

Our first reflection has been written by our Founder and Ambassador Nigel Adams.

Please join us throughout the coming weeks where we will be sharing what "A Hopeful Christmas" looks like from various individuals here at Hope Nottingham.

Hope Nottingham is so blessed with generosity - the obvious things like food, funds and the time and skills of our amazing volunteers. But also by the wonderful generosity of our guests, who share their stories with us, inspiring us to do more and reach more. Sunday blessings to all!

We are so proud of our Carlton Community Hub team for all their efforts and delighted they have been recognised with a Pride of Gedling nomination and Runner Up award. There were 25 nominations in the Outstanding Community Project Award so a fabulous achievement. Well done also to all the other nominees and award winners making Gedling a wonderful place and thank you to our volunteers, supporters, partners and donors. Of course our special appreciation is to our wonderful guests at the hub who make it all worthwhile.

Last call for helpers from 2pm and guests from 6pm for our belated bonfire community meal tomorrow (without the bonfire and fireworks but lovely food and company!)
Let us know via [email protected] if you can join us please… we don’t want to be running out of spuds!

Did you know it’s kindness day today? Here at Hope Nottingham we are blessed to see kindness and compassion every single day that our doors are open, through our amazing volunteers! Thank you Pauline, Clem, Kathy and our Fuzzy and to the other 346 volunteers who support our work across Nottingham. You can see our current volunteer vacancies here https://www.hope-nottingham.org.uk/volunteering

We are genuinely grateful for all donations BIG or small (but pumpkins are quite hard to carry so we are especially appreciative of tinned meat and veg. Oh and custard. Or rice pudding. Come to think of it some pasta sauce and cereal would also be lovely to keep our foodbanks stocked!) Donate to any of our Foodbanks - opening times and locations are here https://eastwestnottingham.foodbank.org.uk/locations/ and our wonderful volunteers will pass on our thanks in person 🤭🙏🏻❤️

This week is Trustees Week so we couldn’t miss an opportunity to shout out to our wonderful Board of Trustees in appreciation of all they do! See a sneak preview from our next annual report all about them. We wish a fond farewell to Callum, Simon and Mary who stepped down a few months ago and to Jez and Charlotte our newbies, not forgetting Christiana, Anne and our Chair, Paul…. Often unsung heroes who steer the treasured Hope Nottingham ship with dedication and compassion, regardless of how still or choppy the waters may be!

November 9th is Social Media Kindness Day so why not reply to this post with something nice (or if you can’t be nice please don’t say anything at all!!)

It’s not too late to join us if you are in Beeston tomorrow!

And another well deserved Hope staff team mention…. Today at our weekly team lunch we presented our Development Manager Michael Singh with a special award to celebrate his 10 years of dedicated service! Michael has been responsible for developing many of our projects… our allotment, job club, literacy and most recently the Carlton Community Hub which we are delighted to share thanks to the whole Carlton team, has been nominated for a Pride of Gedling Award!

Our Friendship Projects coordinator extraordinaire! Rosie has been on the Hope staff team for 1 year today! Well done Rosie! We know your friendship club, befrienders and community meal team and everyone who has met you appreciates you! With an infectious laugh and ability to move certain people 🤭 to tears with your beautiful and wise words beyond your years! You can get to know Rosie by helping at our community meal next week!
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Our current van team is truly amazing and hard working, but as the team has got smaller and our Foodbanks busier, we are genuinely in danger of wearing them out! We need help! Please spread this far and wide!!

The Mental Health Foundation states that ‘People who are more socially connected to family, friends, or their community are happier, physically healthier, and live longer, with fewer mental health problems than people who are less well connected.’ Hope Nottingham is all about community, offering volunteering opportunities, practical support, someone to talk to and meaningful activities. Today in Beeston for example our allotment team have been busy picking for our Food Club, we’ve had Toddler group and Friendship Group today, our Community Meal is tonight, cafe is open Wed and Thurs in Beeston and Friday at Carlton and another Friendship group at Carlton on Saturday!

Happy Sunday Everyone!

Thank you to St Barnabas, Lenten Abbey and so many others for their generous Harvest Collections. Together we can keep these shelves stocked and those in crisis fed!

What a morning we had today unloading a large delivery paid for by Nottm City Council’s Household Support Fund. Thankfully Jenny the Area Manager from Trussell Trust and lots of our team mucked in! 6 pallets unpacked and still our storerooms have empty shelves! 🥹 But we are super grateful for everything we receive. We have harvest collection resources on our website if you are able to hold a collection at your school, church or place of work.

Today marks the Catholic feast of St Therese of Lisieux and regardless of denomination her words are powerful. “Remember that nothing is small in the eyes of God,” St. Therese says. “Do all that you do with love.”

It’s World Heart Day!

Shared by a dear friend of Hope Nottingham who said this song written for Sunderland Foodbank reminded her of all that happens in our Hope network…. ‘tea and a cup of love’ certainly sums us up! Have a listen, check out the lyrics, share and please pray for all foodbanks and community projects all over the world lifting local people from crisis to HOPE just like we do.
https://youtu.be/K2PaN-AiR04?si=rIwmXm683si5WCxG

Martyn Joseph – Albert’s Place (Radio 2’s 21st Century Folk) Martyn Joseph performs his song ‘Albert’s Place’ to the woman who inspired it, Andrea Bell, in the Sunderland foodbank and soup kitchen that she runs.Andrea ...

Huge thanks to the volunteers from Cooper Parry who joined us at Hope House Beeston for a team volunteering day, saving us a load of dosh (and sweat) digging up our broken play equipment, weeding and painting fences! We love looking after our buildings but are sometimes so busy helping others we don’t have the time or funds. A surge of such energy gives us a boost and helps make sure we are a welcome place for those in need.

It’s European Day of Languages!

We have certainly been blessed this week by none other than Bags of Blessings! Literally bags and bags of them! Thank you to the Bags of Blessings team who regularly support us and to all their supporters! These bags will be gifted to our Foodbank guests supplementing our emergency food parcels.

A wonderful example of a community coming together at our Carlton Community Hub event on Saturday. Thanks so much to all who attended and supported making it a great success. There was music, dancing, stalls, yummy food, ice cream and lots more. Special mention to Michael Singh our Development Manager, for bringing the hub to life and to David our hub worker and the dedicated team of volunteers without whom we couldn’t run our activities. Our Director and Trustees were so proud to see the results of the team’s efforts. Thanks also to our partners who also gave up their time to attend (too many to mention here and you know who you are!) And of course to our guests! Nice to see the Mayor of Gedling Councillor Julie Najuk at the tombola and Tom Randall MP judging the kiddies colouring competition. Thank you all!

The banner is up and there’s only one sleep to go! Our official Carlton Community Hub launch/open day is tomorrow! All welcome! 12.30-2.30pm … the former Main St Methodist Church, Carlton Hill NG4 1EE. Thanks to our wonderful Carlton team and all our local partners, supporters and regular guests! 👏👏👏

It’s World Gratitude Day! So here’s Hope Nottingham saying thank you! We cannot do what we do…. Without you… our volunteers, supporters, food donors, churches and other partners and our guests

It’s International Talk like a Pirate Day! (Honest!)

Happy International Eat An Apple Day! We’ve already had some delicious apples this week, grown by our amazing allotment volunteers and eaten at our monthly community meal.

It’s National Doodle Day! And here’s a very old doodle from Hope Nottingham from the very early days! Who would have imagined what would develop.

What a wonderful Community Meal we had this week at Hope House Beeston. Thank you so much to our amazing volunteers, staff and guests for a wonderful meal. And of course to our amazing allotment team for growing such delicious fruit and veg for us. Every second Tues of the month 6pm! Pay only what you can afford and enjoy lovely food and company.

Our new staff team photo (after a few takes… and cakes!🍰🧁🍩 of course!) Spot the newbie! We are very pleased to welcome Alex Rodmell as our new Volunteer Manager. Ps Safe Families Nottingham…sorry for pinching him! Blame Citizens Advice Broxtowe who pinched his predecessor! But we are all friends so no worries we are all happy to share our love and experience around Nottingham!

Today marks the start of Willanthropy Week - the opportunity for everyone to take a moment to consider leaving a gift to a charity like Hope Nottingham in their Will, after looking after family and friends of course. Every gift makes a difference.