from Victoria Windass at the Foodbank
Thurrock foodbank Prayers for Sunday 14th April
- We give thanks for the opportunity to help over 1,100 local people in the nine months since Thurrock foodbank opened in July last year. We are grateful to God that we are able to identify this need in our local community and are able to assist so many who require emergency food in their times of crises.
- We pray for all those who have been fed and helped so far. God knows each of them and their individual situations, so please pray that through the work of the Thurrock foodbank they would know His loving provision for them.
- We give thanks for all the faithful and dedicated volunteers and helpers who are involved with every aspect of Thurrock foodbank: those who manage the warehouse and food stocks, those who provide the vouchers, those who pack the food and those who manage the distribution centres across the borough.
- We pray that more volunteers will come forward to play a part in Thurrock foodbank as the work continues to expand and grow in Thurrock and we move to permanent premises for our warehouse in South Ockendon.
- We give thanks for the commitment and involvement of the local Christian community in setting up and running Thurrock foodbank, and for the generous support provided by so many churches financially and in giving their resources and premises for warehousing and distribution centres.
- We pray for a rapid replenishment of our food stocks where we have run out of certain key items, that the specific requirements of the shortage food items will be met quickly and that the right donations will be forthcoming to balance the needs in every category.
- We give thanks that we can celebrate the first Thurrock foodbank week with a series of special events and the organisation of all the meetings taking place this week and everyone who will attend. We pray that each of these different occasions will be an encouragement to all our current volunteers and will inspire new volunteers to join us.
Thurrock foodbank week
- The first Thurrock foodbank week will be taking place from 15 to 21 April. There are a series of events happening during the week and you are invited to attend the special meetings.
- On Monday 15 April at 7.30pm at the Gateway People’s Centre, Stanford-le-Hope we will be focussing on our volunteers and thanking them for all they do. However we still need lots more volunteers to join us, so come along and find out about the different opportunities there are with Thurrock foodbank to see which might be the one for you.
- If you’d like to visit the warehouse to see what goes on there, or would like to see a frontline distribution centre, there are opportunities on Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18 to do just that.
- Everyone is invited to the service of thanksgiving and celebration on the evening of Friday 19 at 7.30pm at Socketts Heath Baptist Church, Premier Avenue, Grays, so come along to be part of that time of praise and worship.
- Finally, there is a food collection day at Sainsbury’s in Chafford Hundred on Saturday 20 April when we invite the public to buy and donate food items. Could you volunteer for an hour or two to assist?
There are full details of all these events on our website and on the invitations and posters already sent out. Please sign-up to volunteer at info@thurrock .foodbank.org.uk.
We will also be sending out a summary of the week’s events and prayers of thanksgiving to be shared in local churches on Sunday 21 April.