Sharing food is about so much more than just giving someone something to eat. It’s a way of spending time with people and as we spend that time eating together we share our hopes and fears.
It is also a way of showing love. Parents demonstrate their love by making family meals day after day, month after month and year after year.
Mother’s Day may have started as an opportunity for people working away to return to their Mother church on the fourth Sunday of Lent but it became a day where children could show their appreciation for their mothers by making the meals all day to give their mothers a day off cooking.
When one of my sisters was going through a difficult time our Uncle Ahmed would show his love and support by sending her containers of his homemade curries so she always had a healthy meal in her freezer.
We also demonstrate our respect for the people we are sharing meals with by respecting their customs.
Although CCA is better known for its furniture and charity shops and the support services we provide to reduce furniture poverty in Reading, closing our Wednesday lunchtime drop-in centre at Caversham Baptist Church was probably the hardest part of the lockdown restrictions. That drop-in service put us in touch with people needing support in Reading in a very immediate way.
Re-opening in the refurbished church centre was welcomed by CCA as well as our lunch guests.
The cost of living crisis has increased the demand on both food banks and drop-in food services in Reading as it has across the UK.
Although there are a number of drop-ins already operating in Reading the need continues to grow so CCA are working with Park United Reform Church and will soon be opening a new drop-in at their church hall on the edge of Palmer Park.
To allow us to reach more widely we made a decision that all food served at the CCA Park drop-in will be halal and that there will always be vegetarian options.
Patricia Vella Interim CEO of CCA (CCAM.org.uk), writing on behalf of Churches Together in Reading
