Nine years ago the King’s Church Christmas Carols planning team came up with the theme ‘Arms Wide Open’ for the services and wanted to include something that would practically demonstrate this and together we arrived upon the food box idea! Asking the church to bring in long life food items to contribute to a large food hamper for local families in need. The name at that time for the project was Arms Wide Open and we used unmarked boxes. In that first year everyone contributed enough food for 246 boxes.
In order to distribute them we spoke to someone we knew worked at Lewisham social services and they said yes they would deliver boxes through their team. It meant we could deliver to every Lewisham family in need and those under police protection. It was a mercy gift with no strings attached.
And basically we have changed very little over the years except we are around 10 times bigger - the Arms have got a lot wider!
By year three we had branded Big Red Box and had our own website. We began gathering more food because we started collecting from customers at supermarkets and after a few years began partnering with some large companies who continue to donate food en mass helping to share the hope even further.
We have added social service teams from other SE London boroughs and that remains the most significant route for boxes to get into the hands of those who most need them but we have also started giving boxes to individuals particularly through disability and elderly support charities.
In 2018 we piloted the Summer Big Red Box which helps to address the difficulties some families face during the summer holiday. The food and fun summer items are bagged not boxed and we work directly with local primary schools to support the families.
The slogan for Big Red Box is Sharing Hope and it is easy to imagine the joy that people feel when they receive a Big Red Box, but we have discovered that we share hope with many others. The Social Service teams have a very tough job to do and they have told us what a boost it is to them to know they can pass on a Big Red Box to those most in need. And customers in supermarkets are continuing to comment on how brilliant it is. I was more surprised when staff from the stores commented on how important sharing hope was for their own job satisfaction!
So behind the scenes we have worked hard to get ready for 2019 and have tried to make the process even more efficient. In many ways we have been too successful – everywhere we go and talk about Big Red Boxes people want to join with us – and we are adjusting to our current size.
So this year we have had to make some changes, we are asking schools, churches, sports clubs and businesses to bring the food to our central sorting centre in Lee rather than we go and collect. In fact we are asking that as many people from King’s Church will take their food to the Lee site rather than take it to their local site to help the church teams manage the donations. And to make this as easy as possible we are creating a self service area in the car park (King's Church London, Osborn Terrace, basement entrance, SE3 9DW) where people can drop off food from the end of November (Times TBC).
Our arms reach now extends from Tower Hamlets to Croydon, from Southwark to Bexley but we are still committed to the people at King’s Church continuing to contribute food. That was how it all began!! Except now we are joined by thousands of others who play their part in the Big Red Box story.
To find out more about you can be a part of the Big Red Box story, you can go to our website bigredbox.org or call us on 020 8690 5121.