St Nicholas Church: Resourcing the City

Case Study: St Nicholas Church has been using food to partner and support local organisations

In 2020, in the middle of lockdown, St Nicholas Church in the centre of Bristol started a food hub. With some initial help from a ‘Love Your Neighbour’ grant, they were able to help bulk buy food to send out to other food hubs at local churches St Nicholas of Tolentino Church, (in Easton) and St Paul's Church (in Southville).

“We are a resource church based in the middle of Bristol, so we have many communities and charities going on around us”, said Katie Eastwood, Social Action of St Nicholas Bristol.

As the needs of other communities grew and became apparent, "St Nicks" were able to expand what they did and the support they were able to offer. To help give people the option of eating healthily, the church moved its provision towards providing food and encouraging and empowering people.

“We used to give food, and now we have these recipe bags that have the recipe for that meal and then, all of the ingredients to go with it.”

“It really encourages families and individuals to stay healthy, but also that experience of the cooking side of it.”

‘St Nicks’ now partners with four other charities and organisations across Bristol. 

‘One is Bristol-based Beloved, who are an amazing charity and part of their initiative is to support women who have decided to step out of the sex industry and help place them in safe housing. One week it was nachos and they had a nacho party and they used the recipe card to cook together, which is an amazing way of building community.’

‘Bristol Foyer are a charity that support people from the ages of 16 to 25 with independent living and supported living. And so again, it was just a way to encourage them and teach them how to cook.’

‘With the Bristol Foyer we offer a CAP course with them and help their young people with money management and general life skills. And working with Beloved we offered pop up shops so women were able to come and browse donated clothes, have drinks and nibbles and were able just to shop the rails.’

‘When someone comes to us from the congregation or a charity, we are able to open our doors and be able to support them. We listen to what the need is and find a kind of creative way that we can partner with them.

‘Funding like BCCF really enhances and supports our vision of the transformation of society and I think it enables us to be able to reach wider.’

(Update Dec2023: St Nicks is now supporting The Foyer (1625) St Georges hostel (1625) St Mungos, Barton Hill CAMHS, Beloved, St Pauls foodbank, St Nicholas of Tolentino foodbank, Empowering Futures)

BCCF grants help deliver targeted positive impact to critical needs across Bristol. Your donations enable local projects like this one to serve and support local people.

For more information

• visit www.stnicholasbristol.org

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