Impact: Food justice

Our impact: Reducing food inequality

Refugees and people seeking asylum face food inequality – those living in hotels are offered food which is often not culturally appropriate or nutritious and can cause health problems. People living in hotels receive just £9.95 a week to meet all of their needs, leaving little to spend on additional food. They don’t have kitchen facilities, so can’t buy ingredients to cook their own meals.

At our Welcome Centre drop-in we offer culturally appropriate hot meals alongside practical support and advice to resolve and prevent underlying causes of food insecurity and poverty for people seeking asylum. We open the doors to our Welcome Centre twice a week – Wednesdays focus on Advice, and Thursdays have a Social aim.

How we do this …

Shared community lunches

Shared meals are the heart of what we do at our Welcome Centre. Our community lunch brings 100 people facing food inequality together each week to share a culturally appropriate, free hot meal. This reduces food insecurity and social isolation, and enhances wellbeing for people seeking asylum who are new to Bristol, living in poverty, and at risk of anti-migrant hostility and hate crimes. 96% tell us they feel less isolated.

Culturally appropriate food

Our food is cooked by people seeking asylum, for people seeking asylum. Our chefs are mostly refugees or asylum seekers – they make positive choices about what to cook, happily receive suggestions from the people they cook for and have expertise in recipes from different parts of the World, meaning the food on offer is varied. Many of the people we support are Muslim, so we ensure all the food is halal, make arrangements for food to be taken away during Ramadan, and hold a special meal to celebrate Eid.

Holistic support

Whilst people come to our Welcome Centre for food, they also access our holistic services. At our social drop-in, alongside our community lunch, we offer wellbeing / social activities, information and signposting, free haircuts and volunteering opportunities for refugees and people seeking asylum. Our trained volunteers empower people to access other support and services, and support people to overcome barriers to accessing services (e.g. food support, mental health services, GP, community groups and hobbies).
95% tell us we supported them to find new services or opportunities.

Advice and Casework

Our Advice Drop-In focuses on resolving and preventing the underlying causes of food inequality (as well as destitution and homelessness) for people seeking asylum. We provide a culturally appropriate breakfast. This is essential as it relieves hunger and meets people’s immediate needs, putting them in a better way to work with our advice team. We provide Immigration Advice Authority (IAA) regulated advice with a strong track record: 92% of complex cases are resolved or make significant progress.

Working in partnership

We work closely with 5 other Welcome Centres across the city, making sure to open our Welcome Centres on different days. This means there is a warm, welcoming space for refugees and people seeking asylum in Bristol to go Monday to Friday.