Lewisham Cost of Living Crisis Appeal 2022

Aim: to support people who are struggling to afford food and fuel in Lewisham.

Due to the cost-of-living crisis, we are seeing a massive increase in the number of people struggling to pay their energy bills, heat their homes and buy food to feed their families in Lewisham.

Lewisham Local has launched a Cost-of-Living Crisis Appeal to ask those who can afford it, to donate some of your council tax energy rebate or anything you can to help others who are struggling in Lewisham.

The Need
It's estimated that 1 in 4 households in Lewisham are now affected by food and fuel poverty. Lewisham is lucky to have an incredible network of community food projects providing free and low-cost food to Lewisham’s most vulnerable residents. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Lewisham Local has supported this network of 40 plus projects, most of which are run by volunteers and community champions.

Projects have seen a huge increase in demand for emergency food aid as households are struggling to cope due to the increased cost of living.

"The cost of living crises is having a catastrophic effect, I’ve never witnessed a time so full of fear, it’s becoming an every day thing to hear ‘I can’t cope’ or ‘I don’t know what to do.’ These words cannot be ignored." Alexandra McMillan, Founder of Legendary Community Club.

Households have rapidly exhausted funds and have been unable to top up their meters and access the energy services we all rely on to cook, refrigerate food, take a hot shower, or run appliances. This will leave many people having to choose between heating their homes and feeding their families this winter.

“Demand is rising at our social supermarket – typically households and families who have found themselves tipped over the edge from coping financially to suddenly, as prices rise, having to choose between heating and eating, or skipping meals in order to keep their young children fed. We are experiencing an ongoing increase in demand as the cost-of-living rises - and of course our own costs are going up too.” Sharon Shamir, Founder of Feed the Hill

Lewisham Local is launching a Cost-of-Living Crisis Appeal to tackle fuel and food poverty. 50% of the proceeds will go towards supporting the community food projects providing emergency food in our borough through setting up a small grants programme, and 50% will go Warmer Together Lewisham 2022: an initiative led by South East London Community Energy (Selce) to train Warmer Home Champions to provide energy saving advice to Lewisham's most vulnerable residents. Selce provides practical advice for people overwhelmed by energy bills. This funding will help train local champions and local community groups to understand fuel poverty and to reach out to our most vulnerable households and provide energy and cost saving advice and support.

“Good fuel poverty work isn’t just about good advice; it’s getting to the people who need it the most… the energy champions training is a really good way of doing that. There’s more need than we can possibly cover so this helps to ensure we are getting to the people who need it the most.” Dr Giovanna Speciale CEO of Selce

Can you help us reach our target? We welcome all donations big and small to support our appeal. If you can't donate, please consider sharing this page with others or donate food or volunteer at a food project near you.