For families across Oxford, this winter is going to be tough. As the days get shorter, darker and colder, many will be worrying about when to put the heating on, getting home safe in the dark, or staying well in the face of colds and coughs.
For some, the first worry is even more basic: will there be food on the table tonight?
Oxford Mutual Aid is making sure no family faces this alone. Every week, we provide hand-packed parcels for over 200 families, that’s over 400 people - filled with fresh fruit and veg, tinned goods, toiletries, baby essentials and more. With the support of our community, we’re helping to keep Oxford fed.
With the recent flooding across Oxfordshire, SOFEA, one of the biggest local distributors of surplus food, have been forced to halt deliveries until repairs can be made - which could be a few weeks. This means we need to raise funds quickly to make up for the disruption. It’s essential that we can continue providing emergency support throughout the long cold months. But we cannot do this without you - that’s why we’re launching our winter campaign.
It’s essential that we can continue providing emergency support throughout the long cold months. By donating today, you’ll make sure we can pack essential parcels for real families in our community, helping them through the winter.
Donating:
- £6.90 could pack a parcel of fresh produce, pantry essentials and more to feed a family for a week
- £17 could keep our electric delivery van running for a month, making sure our parcels get to the families that need them most
- £60 could buy us enough tea for a month, making sure every family in oxford can have a hot drink this winter
- £110 could buy a month’s worth of baby items for all OMA families - helping us to care for the youngest members of our community
It takes just 3 minutes to give a gift with a huge impact - bringing joy, comfort and nourishment to a family when they need it most. Together, we can keep our community fed.
“I fell sick and lost my paid employment during the Covid 19 pandemic. The parcels that I receive from OMA has been a great help, as I live alone. I feel loved and appreciated, by all the volunteers and staff, when I am waiting, and then see my parcel arrive even during adverse weather conditions. This takes commitment and great concern for sick people like me. Oxford Mutual Aid does more than deliver food, it gives us hope and comfort.” - An OMA parcel recipient
About Oxford Mutual Aid (OMA)
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 200 households of varying sizes with food parcels every week through a combination of our regular and emergency parcel schemes. We do not means test for our services, meaning anyone in need can access us without barriers. Many of our recipients find themselves unable to access traditional forms of governmental or social support due to language, health or social issues, leaving us as one of the few organisations able to properly support. This puts us at odds with many traditional social welfare funding schemes, and as a result means we do not always have a secure financial base to work from.
Going into 2025, we are in the middle of transitional phase when it comes to fundraising. In the past, we’ve had a pretty even split between generous regular donations from our community, kind one off gifts & grant income. While the 2 former have stayed quite stable, grants have seen a downturn in success in the last years.
We are now in a situation where the number of families we support outpaces the money we can reliably expect to come in. So we need to make a change, and given we’re only seeing more and more requests, we don’t think that reducing our service is an option.
So what do we need help with? Well… money! Quite a bit of it.
While we are working on pathways towards getting more stable grant funding, we're looking for extra funds to sustain us through the winter, ensuring recipients' needs are still met throughout.
As an organisation born from, led by, and working for our community, and operating 100% not for profit, we need your help!
If you're not able to support us financially but may have some time to spare, we're also always recruiting for volunteers to help us all year round! Please click here for more info and to get in touch.
If you or someone you know could use our support, you can also find more information on that here.
Thanks again from all of us at OMA, solidarity to everyone!