WHO ARE WE?
Born as a community response to the Covid-19 pandemic, OMA is now a vital part of Oxford’s aid infrastructure and local food justice action. We currently support over 220 households each week with parcels of food and necessities. In 2023 alone, we packed and delivered over 10,000 food parcels!
Oxford is most known for its University and the wealthy surrounding districts. But this city is grossly unequal, and right beside them are some of the most deprived areas in the whole country, where ever more people are struggling to meet the basics of housing, heating, and eating. The increased cost of living through trying to exist in this city increases that pressure, with little to no increase on average to minimum wages in contrast to cities like London with comparable costs of living. That's why when we get asked who are recipients are, the answer is not what many expect. It can be anyone. From those in crisis situation to families in work but still struggling to keep up with the bills, we are there for everyone.
As a core principle, we do not means test. We so often hear from recipients that they have come to us as a last resort given issues with accessing other more conventional streams of support. Many will not be able to access support that is means tested regardless of their situation, as these options rarely take in to account the cost of living of the area people are in.
We're an organisation born from, led by, and working for our community, operating 100% not for profit.
What are we doing for it? WE'RE RUNNING!
We have a growing team of 15+ keen runners who want to donate their metres, miles and yards ran! You can pledge at any amount, and our Olympic hopefuls will be running 500km each month as a group. Even a penny a kilometre goes a long way!
We'll be tracking our efforts on our Strava group, if you want to join our efforts or just follow the fun! The wonderful Bounce Design team has donated their time and design work to help us bring some life to this project, so you'll see lots of their wonderful designs across the campaign.
At least 14 of us will also being running the Oxford Half, so we'll be making an extra push for that as the date closes in on this central fundraiser aswell as on everyone's individual pages which you can find more info on in the supporters tab. The Oxford Half will take place on the 13th October 2024, with this fundraiser closing the week following!
WHAT'S NEXT?
Oxford Mutual Aid has always said that we will offer food support as long as it is needed, at which point we will do whatever the community needs next. We are up against it after decades of government policy running counter to these efforts and likely the need for our food support is not going away anytime soon, but as a principle we believe that we must always operate with this as our end goal.
This help with funding will maintain our ability to operate independently, free from reliance on grant & systemic funding which is inconsistent and hard to forecast for year on year. The longer term we are able to plan, the better we can spread our staff, logistical & purchasing resources to return the most value for our community.
Whatever your capacity, we appreciate any contribution you can make to fight systemic food injustice and support our local community.
If you'd like to get more involved with OMA beyond this fundraiser, please visit our website. There you'll find lots of opportunities to help, from packing parcels at our hall in Cowley, delivering them by bike, car and van all across Oxford or even getting involved from the comfort of your own home by helping us with background logistics and finance work underpinning everything!
If you'd like to donate to us on a regular basis, please contact us prior. Going directly through our website in this case save us on fees!
We're also open to sponsorships as we move towards running at events, please get in contact with us on [email protected] if you're interested in finding out more.