The Second Wave Hits Oxford

The bad news is that the second wave of Covid-19 has arrived, just in time for Autumn. The next few months are going to place an enormous stress on Oxford’s aid infrastructure, which is already struggling with unprecedented demand.

This comes just as Oxford City Council ends its emergency food support programme. At the same time, many community larders have resumed charging for food parcels. Many people simply cannot afford to feed themselves or their families, including many disabled and elderly people.

The good news is that this was always the most likely outcome, and Oxford Mutual Aid has been working hard over the Summer to prepare.

We want to be honest about what we think is going to be a very, very hard Autumn and Winter. The number of people requesting help is rising, and OMA and other similar groups are at maximum capacity.

This update contains a breakdown of our spending and future plans, and we hope it will also help explain the current state of play in Oxford.

What Has Happened Emergency Support in Oxford?

There have been two very important changes recently:

-         Oxford City Council has ceased its emergency food parcel support, effective 11th September

-         Many SOFEA community larders have resumed charging for food parcels

SOFEA is a fantastic organisation and one of our most important partners. However, their normal model requires their community larders to charge families for food parcels – £3.50 or £7. SOFEA made the very generous decision to provide emergency food supplies for free during lockdown, but this was never something they could continue to do forever. 

Following its decision to cease emergency food parcel support, Oxford City Council has referred those who cannot afford food parcels to local organisations and volunteer groups who provide free food parcels. OMA is either the biggest or one of the biggest of these, depending on what metrics you use, but we need to be very clear that we are at maximum capacity.

OMA is a volunteer group. We are lucky to have experienced volunteers, but we have limited resources, including our time. We are healthcare professionals, teachers, students, and businesspeople – none of us can afford to volunteer fulltime.

We also cannot jeopardize our existing operation. There are hundreds of families who rely on us as their main source of food.

If we are to meet the rising demand, we will need the resources to hire vans and pay for the services of professional drivers when the workload is too high for our volunteers. We will also need to purchase more food and baby supplies.

What Have We Been Doing?

In September, our key figures included:

-         Regular food parcel support for 327 people, with 226 adults and 101 children 

-         Emergency food parcels to 119 households

-         Regular meal deliveries to 125 households, primarily the elderly, disabled people, and those living with dementia.

-         Regular support for 35 households with new and expectant mothers, including those caring for premature babies

-         “Check-in” support for 21 families and individuals

-         We have 20 active cases assigned to our case management team. These are experienced volunteers with necessary skills and experience to assist those with specific needs – e.g. those suffering domestic abuse

How Are We Spending Your Donations?

Spending was relatively stable in August and September, at £2,094.79 and £2,400.15 respectively. A slight increase in expenses in September was due to a large purchase of food containers for the Kitchen Collective programme, which occurs every 1.5 months or so. We have sourced cheaper containers for the future.

New Expenses

-         Until recently, Cowley St John parish have very kindly been allowing us to use the Richard Benson Hall for free. However, they cannot maintain the building at a loss, and we have agreed with them to begin paying a monthly rent of £1,200. This is a generous discount, but the new expense will impact our budget

-         As demand grows, we are also reaching the limit of what can be expected of volunteer drivers. We have occasionally needed to pay for van and driver hire for some of our delivery routes, and we will need to do so more often if demand grows. We are currently budgeting £400 for this a month.

-         We are currently discussing food supply with SOFEA, who are already donating 2,000 KG of food to use a month. Ideally, we need to increase that to 6,000 kg, and we will work with SOFEA to agree a workable price for this.

Our Six-Month Plan

We have now incorporated as a not-for-profit company – more specifically a private company, limited by guarantee. Our company number is 12842725, and you can read our Articles of Association here. We will continue to provide detailed reports to our donors as before, and we continue to be run by volunteers.

From October onwards, we are budgeting for £3,500 a month. Currently, we have pledged recurring monthly donations of £1,547. Over the next six months, we aim to increase that figure until our monthly income meets our monthly spending.

We have built up reserves that will allow us around 6 months to increase our pledged donations. We will certainly apply for grants but our key focus must be on creating an organisation that can fund itself indefinitely.

It is also important to note that we are trying to keep at least 3 months of running costs as cash on hand at any given time. Given the year we’ve had so far, it seems sensible to have a solid contingency plan in place.

Can You Help?

If you are reading this, you have already donated. If you haven’t signed up for a monthly donation, we would certainly appreciate you doing so - but we know times are hard, and we are already lucky to have had your support. Our donors have made everything we do possible.

What would be helpful, though, is help getting the word out. Getting £5 here and £20 there takes longer than securing a big grant, but it will make us more secure in the long term.

We currently have 3 regular monthly donation tiers, Supporter at £5 a month, Champion at £20 a month, and Hero at £50. We know a lot of people are financially overstretched at the moment, but if you could encourage people you know to commit to a regular donation, it would be an enormous help.

Some people have offered to promote OMA through their personal, professional, or academic networks. This is also enormously helpful, and if you have access to any networks, an alumni mailing list, or a local community groups, we would love to hear from you.

We also know that some of the people reading this have lots of experience in fundraising. If you are reading this and think we have missed an obvious trick, please get contact us at [email protected].

Final Thoughts

This is going to be an extremely hard winter. While Covid has been the cause of death in just under 44,000 cases in the UK, there have already been 57,300 excess deaths in England and Wales alone.

Thousands of people are dying because of the disruption Covid has caused. Operations have been postponed or cancelled. Support services have been discontinued. Jobs have been lost, and homeless shelters have been closed.  

Winter is always difficult for older people, the immunocompromised, and those living in food poverty. They will not necessarily make the headlines, but that does not make their situation any less serious.

All of us are struggling not to be overwhelmed, and it seems that each day there is more bad news. We are not helpless though. Everyone reading this is part of an effort that has saved lives, and that is something worth remembering.

We can’t fix the world, but people in Oxford can and are protecting the most vulnerable people in our communities.