A message from the team at Rainbow Junktion

After 4 years of running our brilliant Friday Foodshare, we have decided to close for a coupleof months in order to step back and rebuild a more sustainable service. We will be closed on Fridays from the 19th April, looking to reopen on Fridays before the Summer holidays. We haven’t yet decided what our next phase of Friday life will look like so please watch this space.

Our community cafe on Mondays and Thursdays will continue as normal during this time of reflection and planning.

We’re really excited about what else we can do together in this place that we love. But we also want to take a moment to acknowledge what we’ve done together as a community over these years.

What have we achieved together as a community over these years?

In 2020, in the midst of the covid crisis, with people isolating at home, unable to get food for themselves, our community cafe became a distribution hub, working with the council, Woodhouse Community Centre and Hyde Park Source to deliver food parcels and serve outdoors distanced queues throughout the week. Working with volunteers 3 days a week from March 2020 - June 2021, we gave out an average of 157 food parcels a week.

In 2021, we resumed cafe service on 2 days of the week, and welcomed people back into the building. Our Foodshare was reduced to one day a week, serving an average of 76 households.

In 2022, we served an average of 89 households a week.

In 2023, we served an average of 193 households a week

What has 2024 been like for our foodshare so far?

In 2024 so far, we have served an average of 233 households a week - 284 on our busiest day! This is totally beyond our capacity, far exceeding what we did in the pandemic, even when the whole week was devoted to this work.

We’re glad we’ve been able to do this, but hate that it has been necessary. We want to escape the cycle of providing a crisis response to a chronic problem.We would love to spend more time building mutual,empowering relationships and working with our neighbours to challenge a system that keeps pushing them into food insecurity and poverty. This way of working disempowers so many. As such we’re taking some time to rethink what we’re doing.

The foodshare has been a joy (and a trial!). It has been a massive privilege to work so hard with so many amazing people, all pulling together for our community. The generosity and commitment we get to witness is astounding – in time and money and skills. We’re hugely proud of what we’ve done together - 25882 nutritious, culturally appropriate, personalised food parcels; and a community of mutual support and care and love which is beyond measure or value.

THANK YOU so much to anyone and everyone that makes this happen! It takes so, so many people to make this happen, and we are so, so grateful for all the support we receive.

We’re super committed to our mission - to be a place where community, connection, food and opportunities can be accessed no matter who you are and what money you have, while saving lots of food from landfill. We’re not going anywhere, just taking a breath.

As always, a huge amount of love from us.

The Rainbow Junktion team
Nic, Annmarie, Heston ( & Emily!)
<3 <3 <3

Rainbow Junktion Nails 5k Parkrun

Recently, on one of the coldest Saturdays of 2023, members of Rainbow Junktion took part in the Woodhouse Moor Parkrun, to raise awareness of this vital charity and collect donations for those experiencing food poverty.

Based here at All Hallows Leeds, Rainbow Junktion aims to tackle food poverty, fight food waste and build community. This group of dedicated volunteers intercepts food that would otherwise be thrown away from supermarkets, restaurants and several other sources. They turn it into healthy, nutritious meals for anyone and everyone on a pay-as-you-feel/can donation basis. They also operate a weekly foodshare for those households who need foodstuffs, because of the steep rise in the cost of living.

At the Parkrun, the Rainbow Junktion team were pleased to collect items that will help some of the 150+ households they support every week. Many of these are in heart-breaking need with the cost-of-living crisis. Across the city of Leeds, the charity is seen as a ground-breaking way of helping those who are often on the fringes of society and in great need.

This crucial operation builds community through fundraising and hosting events while enabling its users to feel cherished and valued. The leadership team are highly respected by Leeds City Council and they have presented their experiences to a full civic and council chamber.

Commenting on his first Parkrun, Tom Collins, 20, of Woodhouse said:

"It was great to join the Parkrun and represent Rainbow Junktion with such a friendly and welcoming bunch of people. I'm thankful for all those who donated items so we can give to those most in need."

Magnus Hall, 49, who is a Franciscan Friar and hasn't run for years, added:

"I did 5k in 37 minutes without stopping and I'm well pleased. So I will be returning to improve this time! More importantly, it's great that Parkrun is providing a location for its members to give to Rainbow Junktion, and I look forward to strengthening the bond between the two groups.”

Sarah Coltman, who has been attending Parkrun since 2012, added:

“Parkrun and Rainbow Junktion are two of my two most favourite local organisations. They are both so fantastically inclusive, welcoming everyone who turns up. Now the Parkrun community have gone one step further and are providing food donations on the first Saturday of every month, which will be a big help with the foodshare.”

Parkrun attendees can bring donations to the first Saturday run of each month, where Rainbow Junktion volunteers will gladly accept them. Tom, Magnus and Sarah (pictured) will be attending more frequently so say hello to them and other Rainbow Junktion volunteers when they join in. More information can be found about Rainbow Junktion here.

Essential post-run refreshments at Coffee On The Crescent. This local coffee shop has supported Rainbow Junktion for many years through pay-it-forward coffee donations and the iconic Sofas of Hyde Park calendars. (Pictured: L-R Tim Linley, Sarah Coltman, Tom Collins).

Read the Full Text of Emily's Powerful Message to a City Council Meeting

Yesterday our cafe/foodshare manager, Emily Carrigan, delivered a powerful message to a City Council meeting. She shared about Rainbow Junktion's work and our fears for the desperate plight of so many in our community during this cost of living crisis. Imam Qari Asim, Matthew Magnus Hall and our vicar, Heston Groenewald, joined her in representing the LS6 community. Heston extends our thanks to our ward councillors Jonathan David Pryor and Al Garthwaite for inviting them, and for keeping their eyes wide open to the pain and struggles in our city's life.

Here you can read the speech that Emily shared at the meeting:

Imam Qari, Rev Heston, Brother Magnus and I are a deputation from Rainbow Junktion, a community café and foodshare, based in LS6. Hyde Park is a dense, diverse mix of cultures, religions and socio-economic groups. We share food, company, advice services and a warm space with LS6 neighbours, and increasingly with people from across Leeds, as need grows for the food and support we offer.

Rainbow Junktion is a community café and foodshare, but food insecurity is just one of the many complex and connected struggles that our customers are facing on a daily basis. We are are on the frontline of poverty in the city and we are extremely worried for the year ahead.

The increased numbers of people needing food at the moment is scary, we have had record breaking attendance week after week at the foodshare and the desperation is palpable. We see all sorts of people at Rainbow Junktion, many of those using the foodshare are working and although they are doing everything they can to get themselves in a good financial position, rapidly rising costs mean their basic outgoings are now just more than what they have coming in. There is no way for them to budget themselves out of crisis. I have had multiple parents come to me saying they have nothing for their children and that they themselves haven’t eaten for several days. This is utterly unacceptable in 2023.

There is also a desperate need for more emergency housing in Leeds that is both available and suitable for vulnerable people, especially in the coldest weather. The waiting lists for council accommodation are unacceptably long and in an emergency there is very little on offer. We have paid for hotel accommodation for someone fleeing violence in the home, after they were told that they were ‘choosing to make themselves homeless and therefore could not be helped’.

We are also concerned about Adult Social Care services not being able to meet the demands of people in crisis. We are struggling to get referrals accepted for some of our most vulnerable customers. People who would be able to thrive with some support are languishing in crisis because they don’t meet the criteria or because the services are overwhelmed.

Fuel poverty is an immense issue, at the food bank we are more and more frequently asked about food that doesn't require cooking as so many people don't have fuel or are trying to use as little as possible. When delivering food parcels I have seen whole families living in one room to keep warm and know of many customers who have been without fuel for days/weeks at a time.

We are still worried about the gatekeeping and the way that people in crisis are sometimes spoken to on the lines they call for support such LWSS or emergency housing. We believe that the criteria for support needs to be reviewed and also that some training for those answering the phone around dealing with people in crisis would be beneficial.

We are incredibly worried about the lack of available mental health help; many people in immediate crisis have to wait several hours for a call back from the crisis team. And many customers complain of not being able to get any mental health support at all. We desperately need a variety of well resourced and free mental health services in Leeds.

The cumulative impact of 12 long years of austerity, covid, brexit and now the (so called) cost of living crisis means our community is suffering and we need your help. We understand that your resources are limited and that many of these are complicated problems which require systemic change. However we firmly believe in the power of working together to solve them. Our communities are also resilient, knowledgable and have creative solutions, the crisis we are facing requires us all to work together, from the grassroots to the very top. So thank you for the chance to share our perspective and worries with you today and we look forward to being part of the solution.

We find that generosity is the best weapon against austerity - and generosity takes a whole community. So we are also incredibly grateful to the people of Leeds who are sensationally generous, giving their time energy compassion love and money to help us continue and expand our work through these tough times. And we are grateful to our ward councillors in LS6 for their massive friendship and partnership and support. Thank you for listening.