We welcome Trussell as a new strategic partner!

Tad Billam, from Trussell’s Church Engagement team, introduces Trussell, their new tagline, and how taking part in their campaign for UK justice would enhance your unity movement.

Ending hunger together

We’re really excited to partner with Gather as we invite churches and individuals to join our community of food banks across the UK in ending hunger. We changed our name and tagline recently, to Trussell: Ending hunger together. In a small way this shows that while we support hundreds of food banks spanning the entire UK, we know that to bring about real transformation, we have to do it together. Togetherness, unity and what this allows us to achieve beyond our own limits is why I believe our partnership with Gather is such a good fit. We know that many of you reading this will already be involved with food banks and our work, so I also wanted to thank you for all the ways you are showing compassion and building community already.

Growing deeper together, towards justice

We’re heading up-stream with the Guarantee our Essentials campaign, calling for a protected minimum level of Universal Credit payments, based on the actual cost of essentials, to be enshrined into law.  

We’re blessed to have a social security system in the UK, something we can all fall back on, if we find ourselves facing hardship – the radical ancient equivalent of which can be found in many of the Old Testament laws and teachings. However, our system is inadequate, and it pushes people to our food banks and other forms of support. 

Over the last 15 years, churches have joined with us to provide emergency food and have been so compassionate. Now we’re asking churches to build on this compassion, and to call for justice.

Guarantee our Essentials is a partnership with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and supported by numerous charities and organisations. We’ve reached significant milestones with a 150,000+ signature petition and 5,000+ people urging Parliamentary candidates to be vocal about this issue. We have also mobilised thousands to call on their MP to urge the Prime Minister to reconsider the recent planned cuts to disability payments. Alongside this, many people, including in churches, have been campaigning on a local level to gather support in their communities and with their MPs. 

It’s also exciting that we have examples of churches working together for the first time through this campaign – that it cuts through political and denominational divides in a way that catalyses unity. 

Scripture reminds us that God cares about social justice and how we treat each other in our society, especially when we are in need of support. Guarantee our Essentials is a way that churches and unity movements could begin to move into this justice space. A space that might sometimes feel harder to be in, or can feel ‘too political’. There are plenty of engaging resources, activity ideas and plans, and an online offer of support for groups interested in getting more involved. 

Our hope for our partnership with Gather, through sharing information and joining you at events, is that we can inspire more churches to start putting social justice alongside their social action. Coupled with your heart for drawing people together, we’re excited to see more churches feeling confident to call for justice and play their part in ending hunger together. 

To explore our work with churches including the Guarantee our Essentials campaign, visit our churches webpage.

TAD BILLAM

I’m a Church Engagement Manager at Trussell, and my role is producing resources for churches and creating opportunities to meet together for encouragement. We want to empower churches and unity groups to support their local food bank and join them in calling for a future where everyone can afford the essentials we all need.